Let The Games Begin
by Pharaohess
Summary: The Doctor and Rose are caught by the Celstial Toymaker, a villain who tries to kill his captives in games. He wants the TARDIS, but both the Doctor and Rose will die before they let that happen...and the Toymaker hopes they will. 10th Doctor 10Rose
1. PreGame Warm Up

The new story, as I said at the end of my other one. This story DOES have references to my other story, _Romeo and Juliet_, so reading that first might be good, but is in no way necessary. The end of _Romeo and Juliet_ is mentioned, though.

Oh, and Jack may appear in a later chapter, you never know.

Don't own anyone or anything, promise I won't scratch them and they'll be back in their boxes before midnight.

Anyway, enjoy!

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"Something's caught us."

"Again? Last time that happened we were on that thespian planet, remember? The one where I almost-"

"Yeah, don't remind me." The Doctor interrupted as he gripped the console while the TARDIS swung uncontrollably again. "This time it's stronger."

"Stronger usually means worse, yeah?" Rose held tightly to the railing. The last time something of this nature had occurred, she had managed to knock herself out and wake up later in an infirmary. She had no want of repeating that, so her grip was tighter.

"Probably. But the thing that worries me is it appears to be more controlled…" The Doctor's words echoed slightly in the silence that had fallen. "We've landed. Question is; where, when and who the hell caught my ship?"

Leaving his trench coat, the Doctor headed to the door, Rose following. They had been moving from one relaxing destination to another (for once; apart from one tiny incident on Theolpis. The Doctor still claimed that it hadn't been his fault, which Rose knew full well was a lie) after a particularly nasty incident on a planet occupied by thespians. It had almost been the end of them both. Rose now had a scar from the knife.

To relax and heal, it had been beautiful planets and peaceful atmospheres for a while. The Doctor didn't seem to mind the removal of action (at least, he hadn't shown it, but Rose knew there was a part of him whinging for it). So when they had started out to another planet and the TARDIS had become caught in something, Rose had known it was only a matter of time. She was fine by now, so slightly looking forward to whatever was out there. She must be getting used to the adventure and danger the Doctor seemed to draw to him, Rose thought grimly as she followed the Doctor out.

"This, Rose, it what a plain white room looks like. Note the white walls and ceiling, and the strict attention to minimalist detail."

"Oh, I've never seen a white room before," Rose replied sarcastically. But the 'strict attention to minimalist detail' as the Doctor put it, was, well, _thorough_ – no doors, windows, or colour at all. Aside from the big blue box, of course. And them.

The Doctor traced the four walls with his hand, walking around the room until he was back where he had started, next to Rose. His brow was furrowed in thought as he looked at his hand, still on the wall. The look of confusion vanished in a second, replaced by the grin Rose knew so well.

"Well, nothing going on here, shall we go?"

She shrugged, turning back towards the TARDIS. There was a flash of white, then an empty room before them. Silence descended. Rose gave the Doctor a sidelong glance. His face was blank, eyes staring at where the TARDIS had been. The muscles of his face twitched.

"Hm." It was a noise of half surprise and half interest.

"Doctor?"

"It appears that someone or something has taken interest in the TARDIS. And if they don't let us out or at least give us information of some kind, then I might have to become quite mad. And you won't like me when I'm angry." He turned to Rose for the first time while ha had been speaking. "Tell me I didn't just quote _The Incredible Hulk_."

"Yeah, you did."

He shrugged. "Point stands."

There was more silence. Colour flickered on one of the blank walls. Rose gripped the Doctor's arm and turned him towards it. There was a picture there. A man, about thirty, with dark hair and piercing eyes. Only from his shoulders up was visible, but he appeared to be smiling slightly.

"I didn't want you to leave so soon."

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked, the inquiring look back on his face.

"You don't recognise me, _Doctor_? I'm hurt." He folded his arms and looked hurt as the Doctor glanced at Rose.

"Have, um, have we met?"

"You might remember me like this…" he changed before them, becoming an older man with the same dark hair and piercing eyes – but the shape of his face was different, and he was now dressed in Chinese-like robes.

"You're the Celestial Toymaker."

"What does that mean?' Rose whispered to the Doctor.

"It means bad. Very, very bad," he replied, eyes not leaving the screen, where the man before them had returned to how he first appeared.

"You do remember me then. A new world, Doctor, a new outlook on my creations."

"What do you want?"

It was almost a statement more then a question, and Rose saw that an iron seriousness had crept into the Doctor's face. This was an early warning sign – there was much more to this than she knew. These two had met before.

"The TARDIS, of course."

"You can't work it."

"Oh, come now!" the Toymaker laughed. "I know that! I want your technology. And to pay you back for the defeat I suffered at your hands. A new world is hard to build."

"Right. You won't get it." The steely tone was evident in the Doctor's words.

"I already have it," the Toymaker corrected smoothly. "And I could leave you and the girl here, alone, to die…but where would be the fun in that? Even you deserve a chance, and I deserve some entertainment."

He laughed, a high-pitched chilling sound. Rose involuntarily closed her eyes, trying to protect herself against it. She felt the Doctor's hand slip into her own and he gently squeezed her hand in comfort. She was grateful for it.

As his laughter slowly died, the Toymaker continued. "Games, Doctor. Ten trials. Get up here and get you TARDIS back. It should be simple for you." The picture faded.

The Doctor sighed, his head dropping slightly. Rose gently kissed the back of the hand she was holding, and he looked up from the floor to meet her gaze. "We'll get her back, don't worry. Ten games? Easy for you and me."

"It's _not_ that easy, Rose," The Doctor said gently. "I've met this maniac before – first incarnation, if you can believe it. We're in over our heads. One or two games, maybe. Ten is a different matter."

Rose looked closely at him. "What aren't you telling me?"

"These games…they're deadly. Lose and you die. Win – we die anyway. Winning the Toymaker's games cause his world to collapse. If we got to the TARDIS, it would mean we have beaten his games. The world would collapse before we could reach the door."

Rose tired to comfort and reassure him. "We'll find a way."

He looked at her grimly, but it soon gave way to a smile. "I suppose we will. Rose Tyler, optimist extraordinaire."

"So, how do we get out of here?" Rose cast her eyes around the empty room. Still white, still nothing. First things first, they had to get out. A small noise behind made them both turn. On the wall behind them was a thin line of black.

Exchanging a glance the two travellers walked over to the now lined wall. The Doctor experimentally put his hand out and prodded the wall. It moved, ever so slightly, and then the black began to widen – it was opening. Rose glimpsed another white room beyond it, but she could see other things in it; so it wasn't empty like this one was.

The gap, now narrow enough to slip through (at least, it was for Rose) led to, sure enough, another white room, this time with a visible door and a single, low shelf, on which sat some cylindrical pieces of technology. Rose turned to the door, where the Doctor had now entered. He looked around, eyebrows raised.

"Familiar setting, this. Oooh, now. What do we have here?" He had approached the shelf and picked up one of the technological objects. Gently cradling it in his hands, the Doctor carefully inspected it, before grinning in triumph. "I do believe it's a wrist computer. Like the one Captain Jack had."

Rose had wandered over next to him by now. "Two. One for each of us?"

"I expect so." He slid one onto his wrist, watching as it bleeped into life and tightened on his arm for a perfect fit. Taking his lead, Rose did the same with her own and watched as it fit itself to her arm. The screen lit up, and text began to appear.

"_Let the games begin_," the Doctor read from his own screen. "_Get through_."

"_Information will be given at the start of each new level_," Rose continued when he stopped. " _Mission objective, health and time will be displayed for your benefit_. He's got it all worked out, hasn't he?"

"He does." The Doctor turned to Rose, placing his hands on her shoulders, his face serious. "This won't be easy."

She smiled. "Okay."

"Rose, I mean it. These games are not designed for us to get through easily. He's trying to kill us, but is twisted enough to want complex ways of doing so that he can watch. I don't know what's beyond those doors, but…" He sighed. "It could be anything. It could be hidden danger, it could be nothing to lull us into false security. It could even be impossible."

"Well, we've done impossible before, yeah? And," she continued as he opened his mouth to reply, "I mean that."

"You optimism is infectious!" he laughed, brightening for a moment before seriousness descended again. "How are you, by the way?"

"You're worried! That's what's wrong with you!" Rose grinned, but his look made her stop. "Okay, serious now. I'm fine, really – the scar's healed, and it doesn't hurt anymore."

He grinned in relief. "If you're sure."

"I am."

"Well then," said the Doctor, taking his hands from her shoulders, "I believe we have the TARDIS to find." He indicated the doors. "Ladies first."

"Since when did you become a gentleman?"

"I always have been." He replied with a cheeky grin.

The door opened before them. The games waited.

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Hope that's all right and has peaked interest and curiosity! Reviews would be appreciated.


	2. Round One: The Race

I'm glad people like the look of this story. Another chapter for you then!

It was remarked to me that the Doctor was slightly OOC – sorry if this came across. I try to keep them in character as much as possible, but sometimes it slips, you know?

Oh, and I'll say this now. Chapter length is likely to vary a lot in this story – might be long, might be short. It depends on how much I need to put in, as each chapter will be one of the games.

Anyway, here's the first game.

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Behind the door there was a forest. Rose did a double take. A forest – no, a _jungle_, complete with birds, humidity and sunlight. The doors they had come through vanished as soon as they closed, leaving no trace of the way they had come. The only way was forward, into the mass of foliage before them.

"This is all fake, yeah?"

"To a point," the Doctor replied, shielding his eyes as he looked towards the sky and the sun. "The Toymaker can make his world what he likes. For all intensive purposes, this is real – it will feel real, smell real, _be_ real – but there will be limitations, I imagine. Like a game."

The computers beeped. Simultaneously, both the Doctor and Rose looked down at their wrists as words appeared.

_Round one. The Race. Retrieve the crystal; get back within the time limit, cross the line together. Crossing the finish line without the crystal results in a loss of the game. Loss of the game thrice in a row results in entrapment and/or bereavement._

"Bereavement?" Rose wondered out loud.

"Death." The Doctor said off-handily, ignoring the look she gave him.

Rose had a feeling she should have worked that out from what she had already been told about the Toymaker. "Oh."

"Well, I did warn you."

The words vanished, replaced by an image of a map, a timer (set currently at 00:00), and 'POS'. Rose stared at that. "Alright then, what does 'POS' mean?"

"Pos…ture? Pos…essed? Pos…terior? Point of sight? Oh, _pos…ition_, I think. It's a race." He put his arm next to Rose's, lining their computer screens up. They were exactly the same. "At least he's not trying to confuse us. I thought they might show different things, one real and one a lie. Mind you…" he took his arm down and shrugged at Rose. "But then again that probably means his ways of deceiving us won't be so obvious…"

He fell silent. Rose took the chance to closely examine her surroundings. The leaves and tree trunks felt like real leaves and tree trunks. The sun was warm and there was a jungle-ish, organic sent in the air. There was a harsh yet beautiful bird song, too. Rose had to admit – for a homicidal manic, the Toymaker did create some cool things.

Turning, Rose realised she was alone, and after a momentary panic, grinned, rolled her eyes and followed the sounds of a certain _someone_ crashing through the trees, coupled with some Gallifreyian swearing.

"Alright there?"

"I think I just discovered the most evil plant in the universe," mumbled the Doctor, sucking on a cut on his hand. He took it out and looked at the cut. "Well, maybe not the most evil. There are a few carnivorous ones I don't want to meet again. But still - spikes, about a foot long! Careful of it."

Rose evaded the offending plant, whose spikes were a few inches long outside the borders of exaggeration, and followed the Doctor through more plants, more leaves and grass. The usual things one would expect to find in a jungle.

She wasn't watching as the Doctor suddenly stopped, putting his arm out (which Rose walked into, of course). Ahead she could hear noise – cheering. A crowd? They went forward slowly as the foliage became thinner, before giving out to a wide clearing before them.

There were two grandstands, filled with yelling, jeering, cheering people. The buzz of noise was everywhere – but when Rose tried to distinguish one voice from the crowd, she found that she couldn't.

"They're just for the look," said the Doctor, watching the crowds alongside her. "The Toymaker likes extravagance. They'll be nothing special, just scenery."

Together they walked towards a visible horizontal line ahead of them. Standing at it were four people, humanoid in appearance, but with blank faces. Not blank as in featureless, but their eyes held no life, their faces no expression. _Like those controlled by Lumic's earpods_, Rose thought, suppressing a shiver at the memory.

The figures turned as the Doctor and Rose approached, spreading themselves along the line, leaving one big gap – for them. Rose began to head towards it, but the Doctor held her back.

"They're on a trigger. Look."

He took a single step forward, and, as one, all the figures crouched. He stepped back and they stood. Another step forward, then back, produced the same result. "Like sprinters," the Doctor murmured to Rose. "As soon as we move forward, the race begins. I take it we're racing for this crystal on foot."

"And we follow the map on our computers as we go, right? Get there first, get the crystal, and get back. Easy, yeah?"

He raised his eyebrows at her, still stepping, making the figures bob up and down. "If you want to think of it that way."

"Oh, cut that out!"

"Cut what out?" the Doctor asked innocently, as the figures before them crouched and stood, crouched and stood.

"I sometimes wonder about your maturity. Ready, then?"

Grinning at her, the Doctor stepped forward and Rose followed. The figures crouched again. A voice, seemingly from nowhere counted down from ten. Rose crouched down, ready to run – she wasn't super fit, but was sure she could hold her own in this. The voice reached one. A horn sounded. The figures bolted.

They were fast. Very fast.

The Doctor was running next to her as their opponents zoomed ahead – and not on the track. They were running to vehicles, hidden beneath covers and concealed by trees. Soon all of them had vanished around the first corner in a mess of dust.

Rose and the Doctor stopped running, and looked at one another.

"They're cheating!"

"They're meant to. We're meant to loose, remember?" The Doctor was looking around at their surroundings, eyes darting around, looking for a solution. And, with a grin, he found it. "So what do we do when our opponents cheat?"

"Give up?" Rose muttered.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do. We cheat." And he was off, heading towards – a horse.

"You're kidding!"

"No way. Anyway, it might not be cheating at all – nothing specified it was on foot." From the top of the horse, he offered Rose a hand, lifting her on behind him. The horse, spurned by the Doctor, began to canter, then gallop along the course.

"You'll have to navigate. Tell me where to go," the Doctor called from in front of Rose.

It was hard to read her computer on the back of a galloping horse, but not impossible. "There's only the course itself. It's pretty twisty. What are you doing?"

The Doctor was steering the horse into the jungle. There was a narrow trail there, wide enough for a horse, but Rose still tightened her grip around the Doctor's waist lest she get hit by branches.

"We're short cutting; cutting off the loop," the Doctor said in reply to her question. "If we cut the loops of this part of the track, then we make up lost time. The other things weren't small enough to go through here."

Rose glanced down at her screen. It said 'POS: 5th', but what made her smile was the markers on the map. They weren't that far behind the other players. They could still catch up. Maybe.

She looked up as sunlight fell upon them – not the flickers of the short cut, but a long straight that was part of the proper track. The horse galloped on with its riders in silence, the only sound the sound of hooves on the dusty track.

"Give me a name," called the Doctor spontaneously, over the hoof beats. "A male name. Which isn't Arthur."

Rose's mind whirled. Why, at a time like this, would he want a guy's name? That was just like the Doctor, though. "Ummm…Mark?"

"Yeah, that'll do. Go, Mark, go!"

Right. The horse, now christened Mark, galloped on with his rider's encouragement. Rose saw, on her arm computer screen, that they were coming up to one of their opponents, a little way behind the rest.

"Doctor! We're coming up on one of the other player-things." She said in his ear over the sound of the rushing wind. He nodded to show he had heard, urging Mark faster. Leaning past the Doctor slightly as they rounded another corner, Rose saw a figure ahead of them, standing atop a flat board, like a skateboard. Hoverboards were one of those things that were always found in science fiction, and Rose couldn't help but be interested as they passed.

Without any warming, the Doctor weaved the horse into the path of the hoverboard, causing its occupant to fall off and onto the jungle ground. The Doctor grinned back at Rose, but seeing her look of concern said, "Rose, they're hardly real – just creations. He/she/it won't be hurt at all, but get up and keep going like it's programmed. Now lean down and grab that board!" He slowed Mark slightly, so the horse and board were the same speed

Rose stared at him like he was mad (which he was, but that wasn't the point). "Do what!?"

Eyes ahead of him on the track, the Doctor reached behind and, quite simply, pushed Rose over. He kept a firm grip on her wrist as Rose instinctively tightened her leg grip to keep from completely falling. Her free hand was now a few inches away from the edge of the hoverboard, so, keeping the rude thoughts about the Doctor's impulse actions and ideas to herself, Rose stretched that little bit more and grasped the edge.

"Horse or board?" the Doctor called casually above her as Rose screamed involuntarily while another corner flashed by.

"What?!"

"Two transports, two people. Do the maths." He stopped Mark, allowing Rose to sit back upright, board in hand. "Quickly now, we're wasting time."

Rose glanced down at her screen. She had completely forgotten they were being timed. They had just over fifteen minutes. She told this to the Doctor, who nodded, and repeated his question.

Rose sighed internally. Life in the fast lane with this guy. "Board, I guess. I can't ride a horse."

"Right," said the Doctor as she slid off Mark's back. "Snowboarding on air. Leaning forward means faster, leaning back means slower. Sides to turn. Easy."

Rose hoped she could do this, as she stood gingerly on the board. Leaning forward, she overbalanced slightly as it moved.

"Crouch," the Doctor coached above her. She did so and it was easier – but would take some getting used to. The Doctor watched, then offered her his hand. "I've got a better idea. Hold on."

As she did so, he spurned Mark again, and Rose was taken along next to them. She gripped the Doctor's hand tightly as the jungle rushed by, listening to his teaching above her for various obstacles.

"Come right in close! … Flick the board onto the wall. I'm serious; the air cushion will help us turn … Keep your balance completely flat … Don't break my hand, I need it … Trust me…"

Rose kept her mind off the high possibility of injury by keeping half an eye on her screen. The others were coming up; not to far ahead. And they seemed to have slowed. The timer showed ten minutes.

The reason for their slowness was soon explained – the track became a cave tunnel, with three discarded vehicles around the entrance; they were too big to go through. Mark was too big as well, and so the Doctor left his back and instead stood behind Rose on the hoverboard, telling her to copy his movements and so pilot the board together.

She couldn't help but feel safer with him behind her, his arms around her waist, as they followed the track into the cave. It was almost dark, but there was some light, and the guidance of the map was a great help. The icons that symbolised the other opponents had changed slightly – one was now glowing green, the other two appeared to have stopped.

"One of them's gone green," Rose called back to him.

"I'll assume that means they have the crystal-thing. We need to get it off them."

"And the other two have stopped."

There was a pause behind her. "Really now? Then you better tell me just before we reach them – it'll be an ambush, most probably."

As Rose and the Doctor sped out of the cave, back into the sunlight of the jungle, Rose informed the Doctor that they were rapidly approaching the other two players. They were heading through a wide canyon-like place, cliffs on both sides and open sky above.

"Perfect for an ambush. Be ready for anything." The Doctor said in her ear. Rose nodded against him, and felt his grip around her tighten slightly. Protective, this one was.

A rock bounced on the ground beside them, shattering in it's impact. Rose glanced up and saw a figure bending to pick up another one. Uh-oh.

"Rose! Be my eyes. I'll pilot, you tell me where they are, ok?"

She agreed readily, impossible as it was to think of a better plan. The figure threw another rock straight for them.

"Incoming Right!"

The board swung left as the rock shattered where they would have been. Rose was sprayed with sharp chips of rock. As she looked for where the next attack was coming from, something sparked in her mind. Something about this wasn't right; the gorge was coming to an end. But…

"It's only one! The other one's not around here."

"Thought so," Rose heard the Doctor murmur behind her. They left the open canyon and headed back on the foliage. Rose checked her screen, reported that the leader wasn't far ahead (he must be on foot) and the other blip was upon them. Sure enough, there was a crack as a tree fell behind them. The stakes had been raised.

"Hold on!" called the Doctor as he applied pressure forward and the board sped forward. His grip was tight around her waist and her hands were on top of his. The trees fell harmlessly behind them. Then one fell ahead and Rose knew they were doomed.

She was sure they would crash into it, as the trunk was to wide to pass underneath – it would hit the board and throw them off. They were going too fast to stop, so she braced herself for impact. The Doctor had other plans, however, hissing in her ear, "When I say, stomp back hard them forward. Okay?"

Rose nodded, and held her breath waiting for the word as the tree approached.

"Now!"

In perfect synchronisation, they stomped back, tilting the top of the board up and over. The pressure forward that came next carried it over top (helped by the air cushion) and gave a burst of speed. Rose breathed a sigh of relief as they came out into sunshine.

"Where's the leader?" The Doctor asked her.

"Ahead, around the next corner. Still on foot, I think," Rose replied.

And so he was. They caught up with him easily – he was clutching a green crystal shard to himself as he ran, and the Doctor told Rose to watch his expert thieving skills as he swiped it. He almost got away with it, but the runner grabbed his arm, quick as lightening and pulled him from the board.

The rapid change in weight caused Rose to overbalance, and she fell to the ground as the board zipped away into the trees. Her palms and knees were grazed, but she pulled herself to her feet and ran to where the Doctor and the runner had crashed to the ground as a result of his pulling the Doctor from the hoverboard. The Doctor had the crystal; and he threw it to Rose.

She caught it, and he told her to run as he tripped the runner who tried to pursue her. The finish line wasn't too far ahead – round the corner – but she remembered in a flash she couldn't finish without the Doctor. So she turned, back towards the runner and the Doctor, and shoulder-charged the runner. It hurt like hell, but it worked. The runner took another, new sprawl into the dust and Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand and they ran, around the corner.

"We have to cross together!" she choked out. Not wanting to tempt fate, she glanced at her screen. The timer in the corner informed her that they had twenty-two seconds. "Twenty seconds!"

He nodded, tiredly grinning as they crossed the line, crystal in hand.

The artificial crowd cheered as they hugged. One down, nine more. Panting for breath from the strain and the adrenaline and massaging her shoulder slightly, Rose watched another white door materialise itself into existence. Breath back, they exchanged a look of triumph.

"That was easy," Rose said as they headed for the newly appeared door.

"I know," the Doctor replied. "Why do I have the feeling it was meant to be?"

Rose frowned. "Right, then it's a bad thing."

"Could be, could be," the Doctor shrugged as they went though to the next game.

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There, my readers! Hope it was enjoyable. Reviews much appreciated.


	3. Round Two: The Search

Thanks for your reviews! I'm glad to see so many of you like it.

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The door slid silently closed behind them and faded.

Before them, showing the originality of the Toymaker, was another white room. Unlike its predecessors, however, this one was not empty. It was filled with keys. Gold, silver, bronze, small, big, long and short. Every type was accounted for in the mound that spread the full extent of the room. There must have been thousands. Hundreds of thousands.

"Two guesses what we're meant to do." Rose sighed as their computers beeped in chorus.

_Round two: The Search. Find the right key for the lock. No time limit, no hazards_.

"Probably could have guessed that." The Doctor grinned, before rubbing his hands together. "We should probably start!"

"Tell me you're not actually excited at the prospect of doing this?" Rose whimpered as she sank to her knees at one side of the pile, while the Doctor wandered up to the lock itself.

"You know me – I'm all _keyed_ up!"

Rose groaned audibly. A small part of her couldn't believe he had just said that. The majority, on the other hand, could. "Say _anything_ like that again and I'll stick a key up your nose."

The Doctor grinned at her from where he was inspecting the lock. "Look for a typical key. Nothing that could open a dungeon or particularly weird, okay? Won't be bronze, I'd guess. Gold or silver."

"Size?"

"TARDIS key. Actually," the Doctor's eye had a mischievous glint in it. "There's a point…" He tried his own TARDIS key, but it didn't work and the Doctor looked slightly dejected as he turned back to Rose. "Tell you what, you begin sorting, and I'll try them in the door. Okay?"

"Yeah, why not."

He looked at her like a teacher with an unmotivated child. "Now, now. It's not that bad."

She poked her tongue out and began sorting through the keys before her. The majority were those that the Doctor had specified, but whenever she threw one into the empty corner behind her it did give a sort-of short-lived satisfaction. The only sound was the clink of metal and Rose found herself getting more and more bored by the second. And she wasn't the traveller with itchy feet – she wondered how the Doctor was feeling if the monotony was getting to her so much.

She was giving the Doctor ten or so keys at a time, and every time he came back and put them all behind her. Time melted away – the computers had timers, not clocks, so Rose had no idea how long they had been working. It was probably only about ten or so minutes, but it felt like hours, and the pile didn't seem to be getting any smaller even though the pile behind Rose was getting bigger.

"How's the scar?" the Doctor asked lightly, looking at Rose out the corner of his eye as he came up to collect more potential lock-opening keys.

"What?"

"After the running." He said over his shoulder, returning to the door.

Oh right, she was meant to be being careful of overexertion. "Oh - fine. Little sore, hurts a bit to breath. It'll pass. And," she added before the Doctor could reply, "yes, I'm _sure _it'll pass."

"I know." He was facing away from her, but Rose could tell from his tine he was smiling.

She stopped working, crossing her arms. "Then why were you going to ask if it would?"

"I wasn't."

"Liar!" she laughed, returning to her sorting.

Twenty minutes later, her back was sore and her hands hurt from sorting through metal. She bent back, flexing her spine and trying to make it feel better. It didn't, not really, but the ache retreated slightly.

"I swear this pile isn't getting smaller. Would it be like the Toymaker to create a never ending pile of keys?"

The Doctor shrugged from where he was crouched, picking possible keys from the locked-door side of the pile. "Maybe. I think this'll be possible. It will take ages, sure, but we'll be out."

Rose rolled her eyes. "How can you be sure?"

The Doctor looked up at her. "What's better? Mundane or exciting?"

"Exciting."

"Same for a villain. This is a mundane way to kill us." He stood, a small pile of keys in his hand. "This is just to bring us down and strain us mentally. It's perfectly possible he wants to trap us, but provides him no entertainment."

Rose didn't know if this was to reassure her or not. "Right."

The Doctor came back to Rose, throwing the failed keys in his hand behind her with the others. She passed him more, and he retraced his steps to try them. So it went – Rose passed him keys and sorted for more, he tried them and returned every time to get more and throw away the failed ones. It was going nowhere. Rose felt like screaming.

"I'm so sick of this!" she exclaimed, rubbing her tired eyes with a hand.

"I'll say." The Doctor was sitting against the opposite wall rubbing one wrist.

Rose was struck with sudden inspiration. "What if we stopped? Do you think the Toymaker would remove a whole heap of keys or something to speed us up?"

The Doctor considered this notion. "Maybe…but there's nothing else to do – you'd find yourself sorting again to give you something to do."

He was right, unfortunately enough. "Yeah…" Rose pushed her hand into the pile, flinching slightly as the sharp metal edges and kinks of the keys dug into her hand. She pulled out a pile at random, threw three of them away over her shoulder and placed the rest aside to hand to the Doctor to try.

"Can we swap?" She asked into the silent room.

"Me sort, you try, you mean?" came the reply. The Doctor was crouched again, picking out hopefuls.

"Yeah. I'm terribly stiff."

"I'm just terrible." He replied, face impassive but eyes smiling.

Rose laughed. "That I know already."

She picked up the pile she had put aside and stood, pausing for a moment to let the blood flow back into her legs and stretch a bit. The room itself wasn't big and she crossed it in four steps, standing next to the now sitting Doctor and trying the keys. None worked – some fit, but stubbornly refused to turn.

One by one she threw the keys back across the room to their 'useless' pile, and took the ones the Doctor handed up to her. Again and again she tried, again and again it didn't work. This was getting to a point of stupidity unrivalled by anything they had ever done before – and that was saying something.

Although, she reflected silently, the monotony and repetitive nature of their task did make it easy to do it automatically and let her mind wander. She still thought about her old life – she never saw this coming. How long ago had she met the Doctor in that cellar? Not in earth years, but in her own biological years. She must have been travelling with him for a few years now.

She turned, throwing the useless keys into the corner with the others, and taking more from the Doctor. "So how we going to defeat this guy?"

"I don't know." His reply sounded hollow – his mind on other things.

"How did you do it last time?"

There was a pause. "He had me playing a separate game to my companions. If I finished that one, then the world would explode. He's quite impatient – kept skipping me forward a few moves to try and hurry me up."

Rose nodded to herself. "What game?"

"Ever played that irritating towers of Hanoi or whatever game you've got on Earth?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it was that, but with about twenty levels but still only three pegs. If I finished it, then his world imploded. So I left the last move, then got in the TARDIS and impersonated his voice and called for the game to go to the last move. We escaped, the world collapsed while we dematerialised, and that was it." He paused. "I don't know how we'll do it this time, but we will."

Rose turned back to the room. That was strange – one of the piles seemed smaller. Maybe it was because she was standing not sitting, and the different in height made change to her perception, but it definitely seemed smaller. She shook her head slightly and turned back to the door with new keys, handed up to her.

"Doctor, is that pile smaller?" she asked conversationally.

"It should be. We've been working on it long enough."

"No, I mean the other side of the room. The one we haven't touched."

He stood at this, next to her, brow furrowed and a hand rubbing the back of his neck as he considered the mound of keys. "I think it has, actually."

"Do you think we're taking to long?" Rose asked with a smile. "You just said the Toymaker was impatient."

The Doctor returned the smile, adding in a low voice, "We might just be. Go a little slower, see if more vanish…"

They did so, Rose keeping an eye on the pile behind her as she tried the keys. Ten minutes later, she was sure. It had decreased now by about half, giving them less work. The Toymaker was making it easier. Shouldn't they be worried?

"Shouldn't we be worried?" she asked the Doctor, who shrugged.

"Maybe. Depends on the next game. Either this wasn't meant to take this long anyway or he's bored. Probably both."

Soon the ones they hand already tried had gone, and the untouched pile was only about a hundred keys. The Doctor decided to get them out of the way first – there was a greater chance that the one they needed was in there – after all, if it wasn't, wouldn't' the Toymaker have taken them all away?

Many of those left over were unsuitable at a glance, and so when the Doctor handed Rose another ten keys she once again began to fit them to the lock. They all looked similar, some fit, some didn't, but one, the sixth she tried, slid in easily and turned without complaint. The lock clicked.

With a cry of triumph, she pushed the door open, coming face to face with not a white room for once, but a dungeon-like room, made of stone with torches on the walls.

The Doctor followed her through and the door faded behind them.

"Now what do we have here?"

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ohhhh, what's it gonna be? Sorry if this chap was a little slow and/or boring, but if you got this far them I'm proud! Stay tuned for the next part!


	4. Round Three: Concealment

I've had a few people asking about the romance. Yeah, this carries on from _Romeo and Juliet_, I'm just finding it hard to try and get the romance in there. As the author, I'm missing it too – it's fun and warm fuzzy to write. But you gotta admit, slipping romance into _Romeo and Juliet_ was easier! I'll keep trying though, but I will say that the romance is going to be second to the plot itself.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Rose looked around the dungeon room. She couldn't help thinking that it was maybe slightly unoriginal – it seemed to be the conventional dank dungeon seen in so many movies. Through the bars at the top of the door she could see nothing but darkness. What were they to do here? As if in answer, the arm computers promptly provided an answer.

Round three: Concealment. Get to the door on the other side of the compound without being seen. No time limit. The guards carry weapons and will not hesitate to execute on sight. These are my creations, Doctor; they have no compassion or soul but have extreme skill. If you are seen, you will be shot – and you will die .No regenerations for you.

Rose felt numb as she finished reading. This was a definite change in tact and feel to these games. This one was suddenly so much more dangerous and sadistic – the Toymaker was going on the offensive. Lost in morose thoughts, she felt an arm around her and looked up at the Doctor, who was smiling but had unreadable eyes.

"Easy, yeah?" Rose whispered, voice coming out in a croak.

He didn't reply, instead stared into the door before them. Rose wanted him to say something – anything – to give her some kind of comfort or confidence. She felt him sigh. "We had better start."

With that, he moved over to the door and opened it. What little light there was in the dungeon-like room spilled into a plain corridor, illuminating blank walls and a deserted corridor. Facing it seemed like a nightmare. Rose reached down, slipping her hand into the Doctor's, confidence growing as she was rewarded by the pressure of his grip.

They started down the corridor, passing the rooms on either side, all which appeared empty. Their footsteps, even heartbeats seemed too loud as they turned a corner and the light from the dungeon was all but diminished. It was like a horror film to Rose – the shadows, the fear that was welling up inside her, the knowledge that somewhere there were figures who would shoot on sight. The end could be around the next corner or hiding in a room.

As if to illustrate her thoughts, the sound of footsteps reached them. They were coming towards the Doctor and Rose, so, in a moment of panic, they turned to run, silently yet hurriedly retracing their steps and slipping into opposite rooms. It took Rose a moment to realise that she had gone into a different room as the Doctor, but there was no time to chance crossing the corridor and being seen – and killed.

The rooms had no doors, and she could see the Doctor in the shadows by the doorway. Rose was going to whisper something, but the approach of the gun-wielding guard made her change her mind. She pressed herself into the shadows, hoping, praying, wishing they would be all right, willing him to pass without inspecting any rooms.

She saw a small red dot on the ground before she saw the guard himself – it was, she saw as he (thankfully) passed, the laser sighting device atop the large and brutal looking gun he held. The footsteps continued or a few more steps and stopped. Then there was silence, the only out of place thing a small red dot on the ground of the corridor.

Rose breathed out – she hadn't realised she had been holding her breath. She looked across to where she could vaguely see the face of her love and companion, half hidden in the deep shadows of the room. She mouthed an apology, and he shrugged in reply. The small red dot was, she knew, from the laser sight of the hefty weapon carried by the guard – but if Rose could see it, then the guard was facing _down_ the corridor, in their direction. There was no way to get across without being seen, and even if it was quick there was still a deathly chance. By the look on his face, the Doctor had worked this out too.

They were separated now – the guarding figure cutting them of from each other. There was no way to get back to the Doctor without being caught, Rose realised; at least, not right now.

The Doctor was carefully watching the laser sight. He pointed to himself, then behind him to the room he was in. With his other hand, he pointed to Rose, and to the room which loomed behind her. He pointed down the corridor (away from the guard), then crossed the pointing fingers on his two hands over one another. The meaning was simple_. I'll go through my room, you go through yours. We'll meet back up later._

Rose nodded, biting her lip and aware that fear was the dominant emotion on her face. In a place like this, how could it not be? This was the Toymaker showing his true colours, using fear as an incentive to them. Cat and mouse. This was all this came down to: cat and mouse with death and guns. This was the end of life stalking the corridors right in front of them. The still figure could suddenly come into her room and she would be dead before she hit the floor. Or, even worse, he could turn into the room opposite her and-

No, she couldn't think about that. She raised her eyes to the Doctor's calm gaze, trying to find confidence and strength in it. He was smiling softly at her in the semi-darkness. Rose nodded again, as his smile became more gentle and the ever present shine of love in his eyes became even more evident. He mouthed 'I love you' across to her, reminding Rose of _Romeo and Juliet_ and that balcony scene. She replied with the same words; as he nodded to her, smile fading and eyes unreadable. His eyes closed and Rose could tell by the movement of his shoulders he had sighed.

She thought she caught the glint of tears in his eyes when they opened again, and found her eyes, too, were wet. He mouthed 'go' to her, and she drew back into the darkness of the room, turning away from her only comfort. Two steps later she realised that there was more to their exchange than she had realised. It was more than a silent conversation – it was, should the game go ill, a goodbye.

She quietly and lightly ran back to the hall, but the doorway opposite her was empty, the Doctor having vanished into the shadows just like she had. She _would_ find him again. In the darkness she swore that to herself – she would find him.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Every time they went adventuring there was always the possible risk of injury or death, it was true – so why was it this time everything seemed so much more upfront and possible? Maybe it was because he couldn't talk his way out of this situation, he didn't have a plan, there was nothing and no one to help them. This was pure survival.

What if she were caught? He wasn't going to let her die, alone, caught in a game created by a homicidal maniac. The gun-wielding figures had no conscience or soul – they wouldn't see a young woman, alone, terrified, and living her last seconds so far from home – they would see an objective completed. If they were caught, it really was the end.

He wasn't going to let her die. He wasn't going to trap her here by dying himself, either. He would find her.

He didn't want to leave her safe gaze, but he had to. There was no way he could get with that stupid guard in the way. He had to try and find a way to her side of the corridor, and to do that he had to move on, move forward. As she vanished into the darkness the Doctor, too, turned his back on the corridor and headed across the shadow-filled room he was in.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Rose was curled beneath a desk of some kind as the heavy footsteps drew closer. She had been caught unawares and almost stumbled right into the path of one of those guards, and so had turned tail and bolted towards a hiding place. The footsteps were louder now, and Rose could see movement on the other side of the room. The guard was in here with her.

She curled herself tighter, trying to make herself as small as possible as tears ran silently down her face. Thoughts were whirling in her mind as the image of probable death moved about in the room before her.

Jackie, Mickey, London. Home. All the things she'd never thanked Mickey for, the secrets she promised herself she'd tell her mum but still hadn't, all the little things she'd never done – and all the major things she had. Saving the world, the strange man with his blue box and the job at Henricks, which literally went up in smoke. All the things she had seen, the things of dreams and nightmares and wildest imaginings.

And him.

The stranger who saved her from 'students'; a time travelling alien with two hearts and thirteen lives. The person she had fallen in love with – and who loved her back, even though it took a maniacal group of thespians to make them both admit it. The one person she couldn't live without.

Thoughts of him would make this so much more bearable.

The footsteps had stopped. Rose opened her eyes to find two large boots opposite her. She almost choked, but bit her tongue hard and kept silent. A minute passed. Then, the figure turned away, apparently satisfied the room was empty.

The ordeal couldn't have taken longer than a few minutes, but Rose still had tears running down her face and was shaking. She had come so close. So close. I could have all been over, right then and there.

But it wasn't, a little voice reminded her. She had survived, she would go on, she would find the Doctor and they would escape. Ahead of her she could see another room – better lit, yet still dim, and bigger than the usual. Swallowing her fear and putting curiosity in its place, Rose crept forward to the doorway.

The room was filled with crates, with another seemingly non-patrolled level on the other side. It was a little like a warehouse, but she could hear footsteps as guards patrolled between them. It would be too risky to try and find a way through it – there was nowhere to hide should a guard approach. And, by the sound of the footsteps, there was more than one guard. Rose cast her eyes around, and saw there was another door close by – she could get there fast and not have to go through the entire maze. And, she realised, it would put her on the Doctor's side of the compound.

She ran to the door, skidding into it and pulling herself around the frame and into the comfort of the shadows. She took a last look at the room before she left and was glad she did – for, as her eyes swept the room, she saw him.

The Doctor was on the level above and opposite her, crouching behind a crate. She willed him to look around, see her, see she was okay. And he did – her silent message had been somehow heard.

His face broke into a relieved smile when he saw her. He couldn't get to her, but she was okay. That was enough to boost his spirits and determination.

Rose bit her lip, paused, and then mouthed 'I will find you.' The Doctor grinned, shook his head, and replied. 'Not if I find you first'. He winked at her, and she smiled. A ray of light in the darkness.

The Doctor watched as Rose kissed the tips of her fingers and held the hand up to him in a gesture of goodbye. He copied her, and then she was gone, through another doorway into the shadows.

There had to be way to get to that level. If she could get there, then she was, at least, on his track. Then maybe it would be easier to find him and get out. Two minds were better than one – three hearts better than one, too.

She froze as shots rang out. Not near her, somewhere else – somewhere behind her, in the direction of the warehouse.

There was only one other person who would be shot at.

Oh god.

A sudden image came to mind. The Doctor, lying still, a wound in his chest…bleeding onto the ground, a victim of the Toymaker and his screwed up world.

Rose found she was crying as she slid through a door into another room. It wasn't true, not until she found him and saw it with her own eyes. She had to believe she could get through this – that they both could.

She had to reach him. Flying down another corridor, heart pounding, ears open for the heavy tread of a guard, Rose almost cried aloud in relief as she saw stairs that had to lead to the next level.

She took them two at a time; heart leaping up in her throat as she almost fell. She carried on, staying close to the wall, her fear kept at bay by a steel determination. Ahead of her, she could see the crate, which the Doctor had been behind. She was almost there – and so he couldn't be to far away, either. She was almost at the crate when a small movement caught her eye.

Ahead of the crate was a corner. And on the wall was a small red dot.

One of those guards was coming.

Rose ran back to a doorway she had passed a few steps back, creping into the shadows as the footsteps kept coming – into the same room. Rose backed out another doorway into another dark room, as the footsteps retreated. She had escaped again – how much longer could she do it?

She turned to go out into a corridor, but froze as she saw a guard standing just down from the door, idly leaning against the wall, gun ready.

Rose crept backwards; silently praying the figure couldn't hear her thumping heart. She was clear of him but kept her silent movement as much as she could. As she turned to head out another door to another room, hands grabbed from the shadows before her. She was pulled tightly against someone; the scream of terrified surprise that ripped from her silenced in its early stages by the feel of lips against her own. Half a second was all it took for realisation to set in and she relaxed against the Doctor as they broke the kiss and stood in the darkness together. His arms were tight around her as she buried her head into his shoulder.

"I was so afraid something had happened."

"I know. So was I."

Standing together, hidden in the shadows of a room where death patrolled outside, Rose felt safe. It was as if, for a moment, the danger was gone, everything was still and they were the only people here. She had heard shots while running, tried to dislodge that horrible mental picture which had risen unbidden – and now, he was here.

"I heard shots."

"A distraction, Rose. That's all it was. Let's get out of this nightmare. I know where the door is – it's through here…"

Rose felt a surge of love for the Time Lord – he had come back for her. She could've probably made it to the door alone, sure, but she was silently grateful for his return. She held his hand tightly as he led her through two or three more rooms, and a mad dash across a corridor behind the back of a guard (for some reason Rose felt invincible as the passed silently behind him. The threat of death seemed to have vanished, replaced with a sense that they could go anywhere or do anything. She felt it when she was with him) before going through to a room with a familiar white door.

As they passed through the now open door, all fear and danger fell away - they had made it. Rose ignored the new room, throwing her arms around the Doctor and just standing, safe and silent, within his embrace.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

There we go – I hope that was a little more action-packed and cooler than the mundane key-sorting that preceded it. I wanted to turn up the heat a little and give a feel for the kind of sadistic maniac that the Toymaker is.

Reviews make my day brighter!


	5. Round Four: Combat Tournament

I'm glad that last chapter satisfied a lot of people. It was great fun to write – I really like it. I hope this one's as good. By the way, a few will look similar in idea, but I promise you there will be differences.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

They still had their arms around each other. Rose didn't know how much time had passed – surely only a few minutes. Still, as she rested her head against the Doctor and listened to the strong and steady double heartbeat, a thought pushed its way to the top of her mind: they weren't out of complete danger yet. What had the just walked into?

She turned her head to look at their present surroundings. Another white room. Well, she sure hadn't seen that before. This room had a doorway at the other side of it, with a fenced field vaguely visible beyond it. There appeared to be something Rose could only just see from her current position, so she squirmed out of the Doctor's embrace and cautiously peered out the doorway.

There _was_ a field out there. The fenced off area in the centre was surrounded by four grey statues, each one about six foot and all different. One was a young guy, one had horns, one appeared to have thin wings and another was a thin woman with a stern face. They were clearly statues, though, not just standing still.

The Doctor had joined Rose at the door and was peering out with interest. "Any ideas?"

Rose nudged him with her computer. "How bout this?"

"Ah. True."

_Round four. Combat Tournament. Choose attributes, fight in the ring with the opposition. Three fights: one each alone, then two against two. You must fight your own battle, and must do so with no outside help. Loss of one fight results in loss of the game. Fights are timed, and continue until death or unconsciousness is suffered, or the time runs out._

"Attributes?" asked Rose, looking at the Doctor questioningly. He was still staring at his screen, brow furrowed.

"Well, I think it means – those…" He turned, pointing to a table that had escaped Rose's sight. On top of it was a small, segmented container, filled with things that looked like jellybeans. Rose was willing to bet that was about as far from the truth as she could get. Next to the container was a chart, which the Doctor picked up and inspected.

"Ah," he said after a moment. "I think they give us different abilities."

"You mean like powers, yeah?" asked Rose, lightly scanning the list of beans and different features of each but not really reading them. So, they were being given superpowers? Why? So she asked the Doctor.

"What do you mean, why?"

"I mean _why_. Why would the Toymaker give us so much help if he's trying to kill us?"

The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. "My guess, which is the best we're going to get right now, is that those statue creatures out there are strong enough to kill us with a few seconds. That would be no fun for the Toymaker, now would it? So give us a fighting chance – literally – and watch the show."

"Right."

"_Effects will last until the gaming threshold is crossed_…" The Doctor murmured, reading from the top of the chart. "So we won't loose them half way through a fight. That's good…"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Except that fighting in the first place isn't good, is it?"

The Doctor didn't appear to be listening to her; he was studying the chart more closely, making indecisive noises. His hand hovered for a moment over one of the pills, before he picked up a different one, dark blue in colour. He turned to Rose, holding it up for her to see. "So, each one does three things. Each one gives marital arts and weaponry skills, but this _particular_ little pill will also give me the ability of invisibility, which I have to say I've always wanted to play with." With that, and before Rose could reply, he promptly swallowed the pill.

"What does it taste like?" Rose asked out of curiosity.

"Nothing," the Doctor responded.

"What?"

"I'm serious – it tastes like nothing. Like water, you know? How you can't really say what it tastes like? It's like that."

"How do you feel?"

"Well, like me. Slightly stronger, like my body knows there are new things I can do…" he paused, then executed a complicated series of martial arts movements with his fists. His face broke into an amazed grin. "Oh, I like this…" Then he paused, grinned evilly at Rose and promptly vanished before her. Rose did a double take, turning, looking for where he had gone. There was a laugh, and then she felt something – or rather, some_one_ – poke her lightly in the side.

"Oi! Quit that!" She was still looking for him, or for any sign of where he might be. The next time he poked her, she managed to grab his hand. There was a curse and he re-appeared, grinning at her and trying to look innocent.

"Your turn. Pick a pill!"

Rose scanned the list; occasionally flicking her eyes to the pill she was pondering the description of. What to chose? They obviously did work, but now she had to pick there was much to choose. What ability? Super speed? Healing (although she wasn't planning on getting hurt, thank you)? One allowed her to channel raw energy and use it as a weapon. It was a light green one that caught her eye and she swallowed it before the Doctor could see which it was.

"Aw, tell me!" Rose shook her head at him, and watched, grinning, as he complainingly made his way to the table and started to account for the pills to try and work out which was missing. Rose rolled her eyes, coming over to him and resting her head on top of his. She waited while the Doctor stopped suddenly, as realisation hit him. Rose was shorter than him, so she shouldn't be able to rest her head on his – that would mean she was taller. He turned and looked at her, now at his height, then looked down at where her feet were about four inches off the floor.

"You can levitate."

"Fly, actually," Rose said smugly, allowing herself to hover higher to prove the point. "Thought it might come in handy in a fight." She felt amazing – she could feel the limits she could now go to, feel the knowledge and skills that came with the martial arts.

"Riiight, the fights…" The Doctor walked outside, Rose following on the ground (as she thought maybe she shouldn't waste her strength) towards the fenced ring. The four statues were still solid; no signs of life in their stone eyes. The Doctor took one look at the still frozen states and turned back, towards a rack of weaponry that was standing alone by the edge of the ring.

Rose wasn't a big weaponry person, but even she was impressed by the mass of items and knew that Mickey would have gone nuts if he had been here. There were swords – everything from broadswords to elegant Japanese katana, a few bows and quivers of arrows, daggers, throwing stars, an evil looking curved sickle of some kind, spears, hooks, and a particularly nasty spiked chain. The Doctor was examining a katana, balancing the blade and slashing the air with it. "This will do me…" he murmured half to himself, and grinned at Rose.

"What should I pick?" She had no idea where the hell to start with all this, and the Doctor appeared to know what he was looking for.

"Whatever feels right. I've got a feeling that one will feel right, depending on our pills. I, for instance, would fight with a longer, straighter blade if I had the choice, but _this_ one feels right."

Rose bit her lip and turned back to the weapons. She flicked her eyes over all of them, trying to pick out the one which felt right. God knows how these drugs worked or what was chemically going on inside her mind, but she knew what the Doctor meant as her eyes flicked past, quite literally, a sick. She picked it up – it was a heavy, thick, yet perfect weight in her hand. She manoeuvred it experimentally, the metal plated end obeying her command.

"That's a bō," said the Doctor, watching her with a smile. "It's a Japanese fighting stick."

"It's more than that," said Rose, leaning on it. "It's a lift off!" She demonstrated, pushing the stick into the ground and using it as a brace, swinging herself up into the air. "That's easier than trying to fly straight from the ground."

"Well, aren't you just a cat who got the cream?"

"I'm not the only one, Mr. Look-at-how-good-I-am-with-a-sword."

"Katana. And yes, I am."

"You are ready to begin?" murmured a scratchy voice for behind them. Startled, bother the Doctor and Rose turned sharply to face the horned man from the statues. He was tall, muscular, and dressed in a plain martial arts uniform, his face unreadable.

Without the Doctor and Rose noticing, the statue had come to life. The other three were still solid and unmoving, but this man was as real as either of them. The Doctor exchanged a glance with Rose. "Ah, yes, we are…"

"I am to fight you." Rose did a double take. She was meant to take on this horned martial arts mass? Uh-oh. "Come. We fight with in the ring."

She followed the horned guy, bō in hand, as the Doctor followed her (for once). He gave her a hug before she climbed into the ring, whispering in her ear, "Rose, you'll be fine. You're a fighter – just let your new talents tell you what to do. What you think you can do, you can."

"Like that time with _Death to the Mantodeans, _yeah? Now you might know how it feels!"

He grinned at the memory. "Yeah, but this time you're the controller _and_ the controlled. Okay?"

Rose nodded. "So, what's the plan?"

"Outlast your opponent: stay awake and alive for the time limit. Only deal defensively, hit to concuss, not to kill."

"Right. That was kinda what I was thinking." She gave the Doctor a quick kiss on the cheek and turned to face her opponent. He had moved himself into a low defensive stance, and was staring at her with blank eyes. Rose was shaking as she raised the bō, willing her heart to stop pounding and her breath to steady. Out the corner of her eye, she caught a movement. Her computer screen was showing numbers – a countdown.

Ten seconds until they started. Ten seconds until this guys was gonna come at her swinging.

Three. Two. _One_.

And with a cry, the horned guy ran at her, arm pulled back, fist clenched. Rose warded off his first blow with a swipe from the bō, catching his arm. He growled, kicking out at her and giving a glancing blow to her shoulder. She had put him off balance with the bō and it didn't have as much power behind it as it could have. For that, she was lucky.

He came at her again, fists flying with impressive speed. Rose let herself go, and allowed the drugs to help her. She blocked most of the punches and managed to retaliate to put her opponent on his guard. He backed away, then ran at her, his motive to use his speed against her. Rose braced herself for impact, suddenly laughed at herself, and jumped at the right moment. She had forgotten what the pill had done for her.

Hovering above her opponent as he crashed into the fence (which appeared to be surprisingly strong), Rose looked at her computer screen. It had a countdown on it, so Rose had an idea of the length of the bouts. They seemed to be fifteen minutes. Surely she could wait to out up here?

She looked down – her opponent had picked himself up and was glaring up at her. She hovered higher, unnerved by his look, and felt her heart sink as she came into contact with an invisible barrier. Uh-oh. Her opponent ran at her from the edge of the ring, and leaped in the middle – high enough to catch her ankle. He pulled her down with him, sending her bō flying. Rose thanked her lucky stars that adventures with the Doctor had allowed her to put mind over matter and accept the drugs and what they could do, for she was saved from the ground by catching herself midair.

Weapon gone, it was down to hand-to-hand combat. Rose had no idea she could move this fast at all – and was secretly pleased and horrified when she managed to land a solid kick against her opponent's chest. He crashed to the ground momentarily, but was back up in a few seconds. Then he was back up, the attack on her unrelenting, but she was tiring and he wasn't. She jumped into the air above him for a breather. She had to tuck her legs in whenever he jumped, but other than that wasn't troubled.

He timed stated there was only a few more minutes. Rose was pleased – her muscles were burning, her skill still perfect but the power behind her strikes beginning to slip. It wasn't long in reality, but she didn't think she'd last a few more minutes – it was a long time in a fight like this. Making up her mind, Rose swooped over the head of her horned opponent and grabbed the bō. She swung it quickly, into the base of his skull. He sank like a stone, the metal plated end of the bō disconnecting him from his consciousness. A moment later he was momentarily stone again, before crumbling into dust.

Rose felt a little guilty, as she wearily wandered back to the fence and into the Doctor's arms. "Not bad, Hippolyta. Well done."

"Hippolyta?" Rose murmured.

"Amazonian queen. Quite a fighter."

There was a cracking noise as the winged statue came to life. The Doctor looked up, towards his opponent, and pulled a face. "Ah. Well, this won't exactly be fun."

He leapt lightly over the fence and waved merrily at Rose as the seven-ish foot winged demon stood opposite him. Rose watched the countdown on her screen reach zero and the Doctor's fight began.

He had the katana drawn, held in a defensive position as the demon ran at him. Using the flat of the blade rather than the sharpened edge, the Doctor managed to block most of the punches with the sword. The demon was stronger, and taller than him. But he was visible. The Doctor faded out of existence – and couldn't help grinning as the demon stopped, unsure of where his quarry had gone. The Doctor crept around the back of his opponent, raising the sword to bring the pommel down for a knock out.

The demon seemed to sense something was wrong, and swung around, punching and kicking at the air. The Doctor was forced to duck hurriedly, backing out of the frenzied range of the demon before he got himself clocked. This wasn't going to be _that_ easy. And he was beginning to tire, amazingly. Not much, not so much to cause a problem – but on the edge of his stamina, he could feel something. The invisibility was taking a toll.

He crept away from the demon and let visibility return. He had one chance to get a knockout hit in, or it was the outlast tactic. He raised the sword to deliver it, but the peripheral vision of the demon gave a warning and the Doctor found himself tacked to the ground, the sword skidding away Hollywood-style, as he heard Rose cry out from outside the ring. The demon scrambled up, ready to deliver a hard, low kick to his prone opponent, but the Doctor managed to roll out of the way – just in time. It became, just like it had with Rose's fight, hand-to-hand.

The Doctor didn't like hand-to-hand, didn't like fighting at all for that matter. But needs must, and this just needed to be enough to outlast this demon guy. He didn't have a chance to look at the timer – a lapse like that could cost him. Instead, he trusted to luck that it wasn't long and began to block the punches and kicks that were being thrown at him.

This guy was strong. The effort of blocking the attacks was enough to drive the Doctor back, and he was fast running out of room. But, if he could change his angle slightly…there. The Doctor was now being backed towards his discarded katana. He gave up some more ground, grinning slightly as his heal hit the blade. He tried to keep his mind on his hands and their blocks, but at the same time gently felt back with his foot and managed to flick the blade up, back into his hand.

He grimaced as he caught the blade, but it was enough to swing the hilt into the side of the demon's head. The demon howled, raised a hand to its head and backed off. The Doctor had quietly hoped it might have been enough to knock the demon out – no such luck. Now he was facing an _angry_ demon. Not good.

He had to revert to quick movements (an advantage of being smaller than what he was fighting – he was faster) each flick of the blade causing pain to his opponent. The pain was really unnecessary, and the Doctor found himself apologising automatically. Sweat was beginning to get in his eyes, and he was breathing hard. Surely there couldn't be much more, surely the time was almost-

The demon froze, turning back to stone, before crumbling to dust. The Doctor wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve as Rose vaulted the fence (with the help of her bō) and barrelled into him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. We have company."

Rose turned to look at what he was staring at, but as she heard a quite cracking noise it became clear. The young man and the woman had become animated and were standing, waiting for them. The Doctor exchanged a look with Rose. She could see he was tired but determined, he could see she was scared but strong. Their timers showed ten seconds.

"Will you be okay?" The Doctor asked Rose, who pulled a mixture of a concerned and patronising face at him. "Don't look at me like that – you look like Jackie."

"I'm not the one who just fought. Come on."

Together, always together, they turned to face their two opponents – the thin, stern woman, and the young guy. This wasn't going to be easy, no way. Rode and the Doctor had just enough time to raise their weapons before both their opponents ran at them, full tilt. Rose was met by the young guy who immediately tried to get in under her guard. He did, a few times, but the were just glancing blows and Rose slowly began to drive him back with the bō. The Doctor had been met by the woman, who had a concealed blade and the two of them were going at each other with force.

He had just come out of a fight – he would last, but not long. Already he could feel his stamina and strength beginning to waver. There needed to be an easy way out of this. And there was – but it would make him tired faster. Anything to catch his breath. He vanished, achieved a decent yet not really injurious blow to the woman, and gave one to the guy as well.

Rose smiled briefly as he reappeared before her. "Okay?"

"Yeah, I think. How much time do we have? Thirteen minutes," he said, answering his own question. "Right. We have thirteen minutes – and we have company, too."

The two opposition had raised themselves – both looked angry. Rose raised the bō, the Doctor next to her. Rose was back into warding off the fists, and feet, of the young guy, trying to keep her mind on the game. Beside her, the Doctor was fighting, but there was a cry and Rose heard something metal land on the ground. She chanced a look while dodging a blow – the Doctor was weapon-less, his katana near her.

The Doctor didn't have much of a choice – when that blade fell, he had to catch it to save himself. That was going to hurt – but cut hands would be better than a cut neck. He didn't have a chance, though – he was suddenly pulled upwards and off the ground by Rose, using her momentum to pull him up with her. Even though she couldn't hold him and she put him back down fast, it had been enough and got him out of harms way. She then started to duel with the sword-wielding woman. The Doctor looked around and saw the young guy was trying to dig something out of his eyes. Sand – good move, Rose.

The Doctor ran and picked up his katana, giving the young guy a solid crack on the head and watching as he fell, turned to stone, and then crumbled. Only one to go, then. One who was soundly beating Rose.

Rose was still holding her ground, granted, but not for long. The force of this woman's slashes were jarring her arms whenever she used the bō to block. She had already been dealt a few light scratches, and in the end she used her flight to try and avoid a particularly complicated sword move. The woman threw her sword at Rose, who avoided it, watching as it clattered to the ground.

The woman was being driven back by an unseen foe. Rose watched as the Doctor drove the woman back, who was unable to fight back as her fists hit thin air. The Doctor yelled to Rose to throw the sword away, but his voice gave away where he was and the woman dealt him a hard punch to his shoulder. The impact forced him back into visibility. Rose had managed to remove the sword though, and threw it out of the boundaries.

Rose looked around, searching for a way out. She called to the Doctor, told him to regain his invisibility and trust her. Without so much as a look, he did as she said, and Rose flew about the woman's head, prodding, hitting lightly, but staying out of her range. The woman snarled and tried to drag her down like before, and Rose, it appeared to the invisible Doctor let her do just that – but the reason was evident. She was pulled down to the ground and smiled as the woman drew back a punch – then tuned to stone.

The Doctor reappeared, tired, smiling. "Nice."

"How's the shoulder?"

"Ah, it'll be fine. What about you?"

Rose shrugged. "A few shallow cuts, nothing major."

The familiar white door had appeared. They walked towards it, arms around each other and weapons in hand, into the unknown of the Toymaker's next game.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ohh, that was a little (okay, a lot) longer than intended. I hope it was okay and not too boring or clichéd. Thank you so much for all the continued support this story is getting!

And yes, the line '_together, always together_' is also used in _Romeo and Juliet_. I'm a complete sap, yes, I know, but I wanted to use it again.


	6. Round Five: The Labyrinth Part One

After finishing this chapter, I realised it was rather long. So, to compensate, this game will be in two-part format, hence being labelled 'part one' and 'part two'

Still don't own Dr Who. I wish. Maybe in a parallel universe?

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Rose felt her bō vanish from her hand. Looking at her now empty hand, she realised that her weapon had gone completely, not able to exist outside the boundaries of it's game. The Doctor, too, held empty air, his katana suffering the same fate.

"Well, that was probable and ever so slightly unfair," the Doctor grinned at Rose. "But oh well! That's the way the Toymaker likes to play. Come on."

Digging his hands deep into his pockets, the Doctor strode off into the next game, Rose rolling her eyes once before following him. They appeared to be in amidst rough stone walls. Rose didn't like where this was going – it had to be a…

"Maze," said the Doctor, one hand on the wall. "A maze! Brilliant!" He glanced down, then waved his computer in Rose's direction. "Hey, what do you know? Give the man a medal!"

_Round five: The Labyrinth. Get through the maze to the door. No time limit. _

"That's…short." Rose said after she had finished reading.

"Yes, it is. That's a bit strange, and a little worrying. No, it's very strange and a lot worrying, actually. All the other games have been more descriptive...best we be on our guard."

Looking to an outsider like he was _not_ on his guard whatsoever, the Doctor continued to stroll along the outermost reaches of the maze, taking a turn when he felt like it, and muttering to himself occasionally upon reaching a dead end. Rose followed him unquestioningly, her mind on looking for traps or anything sinister at could be lurking, waiting to hinder or hurt them. The apparent simple nature of this challenge unnerved her.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice the Doctor had stopped and almost walked into him. He was looking up at the walls on either side of them, a thoughtful look on his face. He looked at his screen, but it was blank – no help of any kind. There had to be a marker, something to let them know where they were headed. Maybe there wasn't…no, there – an impossibly tall white spire, reaching far into the sky so it could be seen from any part of the labyrinth. That had to be the point to reach.

He nudged Rose, who was leaning against a wall lost in thought, and pointed it out to her. She nodded, eyes flicking up and down the part of the impressive structure that they could see.

"That's gotta be it." The Doctor said simply to her.

"What tipped you off? The white or the sheer feeling of 'look-how-powerful-I-am-and-what-I-can-create' that radiates from it?" Rose answered cheekily back. The Doctor looked at her, a little like a teacher with a disruptive child – a softly disapproving and stern look, for which he got a hit on the arm. "Now who looks like Mum?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to give a witty reply, but couldn't think of one. Instead, he simply settled for "Oh, that was low."

"For you or for mum, I wonder?"

Two-nil to Rose. The Doctor kept walking, Rose close behind. They didn't seem to be getting anywhere – the spire looked as far off as ever, and Rose was sure they had been going in circles. She was hardly watching where she was going, and felt the blood rush to her face when she tripped over a crack in the rock. She got back up, expecting to see the Doctor laughing at her, but she faced only stone.

"Doctor?" she called. What the hell had happened?

"Rose? Where are you?" came the confused reply.

"Right where I was! I tripped, and now I'm facing a wall."

"Ah. Now there is a wall behind me where there wasn't one before." He paused. "Lesson one about this labyrinth – the walls can change. Didn't expect that, but should of. Damn."

"So I guess I'll meet you at the spire?" Her heart was heavy. The last time they had been separated, it hadn't been nice – an experience she had no intent of going through again. Still, at least there was no darkness or stalking figures here. At least, not as far as could be told.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Take care of yourself, yeah?"

"And you." Rose knew he was smiling as he said it.

She leant against the wall, looking at the new opening beside her. The Doctor's footsteps and improvised hum were fading and so she began her journey. The walls all looked the bloody same! She was trying to get to the middle, so she had to go toward the spire. Easier said than done.

She carried on, her footsteps echoing slightly. The maze was empty, just Rose and her thoughts. And, somewhere, the Doctor and his thoughts. She sighed, leaning on a wall and contemplating what path she should take out of the three that stretched before her. She decided to go for the centre path, wandering along it. Hang on; was there a clock somewhere? She could hear ticking.

Turning a corner, Rose stopped dead. No way – these things had been destroyed, hadn't they? She had no intention of being used for 'spare parts' for any bloody star ship, not then, not now, not ever. So maybe the centre path wasn't the best, then. As it hadn't seen her, Rose ran quickly back round the corner, determined to put as much distance between her and the clockwork nightmare.

She bolted along the left hand path, until all she could hear was the sound of her own rapid heartbeat. No ticking. She was sure the Doctor had dealt with those when he had gone through the mirror, right? So why the hell was that clockwork robot, still in French getup, in this maze and very much alive?

Slowly her breathing slowed and she continued along the path before her. So this maze wasn't as simple and safe as she had first thought, then. She hoped that the Doctor hadn't got into any kind of trouble, and then stopped herself, because a) trouble was his middle name, and b) he'd get himself out of it anyway.

She continued walking, alert for any sounds – ticking or otherwise – and felt her fear beginning to abate. One clockwork robot, fine. Then, just as she was feeling calm again, there was a sound that made her blood run cold. Coming this way, coming fast – and the walls had changed so Rose was now trapped within a dead end. The words came again.

"Are you my mummy?"

oooooooooooooooooooooo

The Doctor ran around another corner, his hearts pounding. The werewolf howled behind him, coming ever closer. As he ran, the Doctor tired to work it out. The werewolf was dead, for one thing. And on top of that – it was day! This should be impossible, or at least improbable. The Doctor had no idea how to fight the wolf – he had no weapons, and would be dead easily in a straight out fight. He could only run, but the wolf could smell him, know where he was and follow the trail.

And didn't _that_ just help so much? Just when he was thinking it couldn't possibly get any worse! He _had_ to think that, didn't he? Still, as he skidded to halt before the auton, maybe it could work. Trapped between the two creatures, maybe he could use the auton's weapon against the wolf…? It was better than nothing, and the auton was about to fire. The wolf had stopped running, and was slowly prowling up to his prey. All the Doctor had to do was duck at the right time.

He dropped as the auton fired. The wolf, hit, howled and then – _shattered?_ The Doctor bent to investigate. There was nothing there. Nothing at all. No fur, no blood, just an empty space. Which meant…what?

Theory beginning to form, the Doctor turned back to the auton, dodged as it fired again and then, quite purposefully, pressed his hand into it's chest. His hand hit solid living plastic for a moment, and then it gave way, the Doctor's hand sinking in. It felt like dough. A moment later, the auton shattered, just like the wolf had. The Doctor was left standing with his hand in air, all traces (except for a scorch mark on the wall) of the auton gone.

The Doctor's mind whirled. These creations were familiar to him, so they must have been pulled out of his memory. But they were _illusion_, and had no substance. Pressure applied meant the form couldn't be sustained like a real thing, and so the illusions gave way. Somewhere, Rose was presumably being tormented by creatures from their past adventures. But why worry? Rose was smart enough to work it out.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

She had watched them be cured. She had watched! She remembered it – the night she met Jack, and the Doctor – her first Doctor – had said, _"Everybody lives, Rose, just this once…"_

Yet a little more than a metre away was the original empty child, asking for his mother. Rose's mind was trying to make sense of it all as he came closer, but was getting nowhere. In desperation she put her hand out to stop him, her hand meeting the rubber edge of the gas mask. It felt just like rubber, and then gave way, into something much softer. Rose could only stand amazed as the boy shattered before her, leaving noting to signify his existence.

Rose stood for a moment, hand still outstretched. Her hand had gone _into_ it. And now, it was gone. Okay, that made sense. Think Rose. This means that they aren't real. And the clockwork robot, the empty child? They were defeated foes from past adventures. They lasted only as memories now. Memories…

Was that it? Had she worked it out? Were they from her memories and so, illusions in this maze? That had to be it.

Rose raised herself from the wall and started walking. The rough walls soon gave way to hedging and she found the paths were slightly wider. She came upon a courtyard, wide and refreshingly spacious after the walled walkways. In the centre there was a hole, covered by a thin wire grating. She paused and picked a path that would take her towards the spire (which looked closer). As she began to leave, she hesitated, thinking she heard movement. She shrugged, and began walking again.

"Hey, someone there?"

She froze. Where had that voice come from? Her eyes alighted on the metal grating. Surely not…?

"Hey? Nah, just me being stupid."

Rose's heart leapt into her mouth. It had come from the grating, and more importantly, it sounded like…

"Jack?"

"Rose?! Aw, hell, no way! That you?"

Rose peered cautiously into the grating. Sure enough, a familiar face grinned back at her. She smiled despite her niggling feeling that he was another illusion. "You're not real. You can't be."

Jack's eyes narrowed quizzically. "What are you talking about? I'm as real as you!"

"Jack, I've just seen a gas masked kid and a clockwork robot, both of which I know are gone. How do I know you're not another illusion?"

Jack thought for a moment before answering. "Ask me anything."

"Um, okay…" Rose was slightly thrown by his answer. Could he really be real? "What was 'our song'?" That was something only the real Jack would know, she was sure.

"Glen Miller's Moonlight Serenade." Said without hesitation, and with a flash of a flirtatious smile that Rose remembered.

"Okay," Rose grinned, "What about my t-shirt?"

"That ever so attractive Union Me."

Rose was looking frantically for something to help get him out. There was only one way left to determine his reality, but she couldn't do it from here. The courtyard was bare. She told Jack this, and he grinned and said he only needed her to pull him up so he could reach the edge of the hole. She undid the grating clasp and pulled it off, reaching one hand in to Jack. He grabbed it and jumped as she pulled back. His free hand caught the edge of the hole and after a moment, he was standing before her, just as she remembered.

She put her hand out on his chest, ignoring Jack's interested yet confused look. Her hand didn't sink into him. "Oh my god, it is you!" She pulled him into a tight hug. Here was one she _never_ thought she'd see again. "How are you?"

"A little confused, to say the least…" he responded, so Rose briefly outlined what was going on, with the labyrinth, the illusions, the Toymaker and the current situation with the TARDIS. He was, for once, completely silent as she spoke. Rose had one more question to ask.

"How did you escape the Daleks?"

"I don't know," said Jack sincerely. "One minute I was facing three Daleks, out of ammo, then I was opening my eyes, awake - alive, piles of dust on the floor. I've got no better answer than that, sorry."

Rose just hugged him again. There was no need to tell him about the Bad Wolf right now. Right now they had to get to the centre of this maze, to the spire, and find the Doctor. Rose felt so happy that Jack was here again. As they walked, Rose explained about the Doctor's regeneration, and their adventures thus far. She tried to answer Jack's questions as best she could. According to Jack, he'd been on Earth when he was taken. Woke up in the labyrinth, got stuck in an oubliette, and waited until Rose had conveniently appeared.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I don't know much about what happened to Jack after Parting of the Ways. I haven't seen Torchwood, so I've been vague about how Jack got here. Just bear with me, okay? It's not gonna be mentioned again.


	7. Round Five: The Labyrinth Part Two

Okay, part two, as promised. I wouldn't be so mean as to put up one alone!

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

They were slowly, but surely, Rose was sure, making their way towards the massive spire. As they did so, Rose saw a figure emerge into a pathway as they passed it. She kept walking, aware that the figure was following her. The figure called out, and Jack stopped Rose with a hand on her arm.

"Isn't that Mickey?"

"No, it's not. Just a memory."

"I was real, wasn't I?"

Rose had to admit to herself that Jack had a point. She turned to the familiar figure, who had stopped when they had. "You're not real, Mickey. You're just a figure from my imagination – my memories – that the Toymaker's brought to life."

"I missed you," said Mickey. Rose didn't know why he had quite said that, but could see he was hurt. She was sure, though, that he wasn't real. If he had been real, he wouldn't have hung back like he did. He would have run up, throw his arms around her and demanded an explanation.

"Mickey…"

He cut her off. "You could have been dead. You all think you're so clever, don't you? Why, 'cause you're better than us? You just forgot me! You ruined my life!"

Rose was surprised and hurt by what he was saying. Her voice had frozen in her throat, her mind was telling her it wasn't real. She had to believe it was a trick. "What are you taking about?"

"I'm just thinking about you, babe! That's the thing, isn't it? You can rely on me. I don't go changing my face. Guess I'm just stupid. I'm the tin dog - I'm not an idiot!"

Rose mind clicked. Amidst the guilt and torment in her head, she realised this Mickey was saying things he had said before. The thing about changing his face had been the night with the Sycorax. This proved he really was a memory.

"You really love him, don't you? It's just you and him, isn't it? It's never going to be me, is it? I'm just a spare part."

Rose couldn't take much more. She had felt hollow for days after leaving Mickey on the parallel Earth, and guilt had been a close friend when she thought about what she had put him through. She was never going to see him again – she didn't need this. Leaving Jack where he was, she walked back to Mickey and put her arms around him, tightening her grip until he shattered into nothing. She felt Jack's hand in hers, and he led her away from where Mickey's illusion had been.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The Doctor had almost shouted in surprise when he had wandered into a courtyard and seen her. Sure, monsters were one thing, but her? She might be able to be classified as a monster, provided Rose wasn't here, but could she be real? At the moment, he couldn't even get a word in.

"What's happened to Rose? Is she dead?" Jackie crossed her arms and scowled at him. "Well, I reckon you're mad. You're always doing this. It's not safe! She's not safe! She's lucky to be alive!"

She paused, a hand over her mouth. The Doctor quickly took the opportunity that presented itself. "Jackie –"

Not quick enough, then, as Jackie cut him off. "I've seen this life of your, Doctor. And maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this - is my daughter safe? Is she safe? Will she always be safe?"

The Doctor wanted to leave, but she was blocking the only exit without him doubling back on himself. And he knew that Rose would never really be safe. He knew that, Rose knew but still came anyway, and he also knew Jackie knew it but wouldn't say. Her words brought back memories of Downing Street and Slitheen; she had said something similar to him then. He hadn't been able to give her an answer then, and –

Jackie hadn't said something similar back then at all. She had said exactly the same thing. These words were from an _exact_ memory. There was no doubt now – she was a memory, and obstacle set in motion by the Toymaker. So the Doctor walked up to her, Jackie still glaring at him, and put his hands on her shoulders. A moment of resistance, and she shattered into air.

He wiped his hands, even though there was noting on them, and walked down the now accessible path. People from memories were harder to deal with than creatures, no doubt about that. As he walked through another corridor, caught up in his thoughts and so ignoring the CyberController Lumic who called out to him about the upgrade of mankind, the Doctor wondered what else the Toymaker was going to throw at him. At _them_, really – Rose was still wandering the maze, too.

Left, right, right, left…dead end. Take the other path, take the next one that was in the spire's direction (now so close he could see it was decoratively carved). On and on the maze went, on and on…

oooooooooooooooooooooo

"What are they?" Jack asked, as he crouched with Rose behind a corner.

"Sycorax. Real bastards."

"Ah. Memory?"

Rose laughed softly. "Try Christmas Eve with the Doctor unconscious."

The Sycorax was imposing even in memory form, and Jack had wanted to be the one to make it vanish. So after Rose finished speaking, Jack ran around the corner at full speed and shoulder-charged the creature, yelling a warcry as it shattered before them.

Rose laughed at him and his victory. Once you could sort out what was real and not, then this maze was simple. Although, Rose didn't trust the Toymaker to throw in a real version of a memory to catch them off guard, so she was being careful.

"So, Christmas Eve with the Doctor unconscious? Sounds like a good yarn. Regeneration was the reason for his catatonic state, I take it?" said Jack as she caught up to him.

Rose grinned at the memory, even though the event had been somewhat terrifying. "Yeah, it was. It did come in handy – literally – cause he got his hand cut off and could grow it back."

Jack snorted. "Impressive."

Rose glanced up to the spire. She was close enough to be able to see that the lower part was beautifully carved. They had to be almost there.

There was a noise ahead. Rose watched as an imposing shadow grew on the wall, and recognised it instantly. "Oh, no way…old friend of ours, Jack…"

Jack, for some reason, was grinning. "It is too."

The Dalek immediately started to whine "Exterminate!" as soon as it saw them, but Jack was confident – after all, he stated to Rose, it was only a memory, disposed of by a simple punch. Then he ducked as a bolt from the disintegrator beam flew over his head and harmlessly into the wall, not so much as a scorch left.

Rose grabbed him, pulling him back down the path. "No damage to the wall means I doubt it'll kill us, but I don't think I wanna be hit anyway!"

She was laughing as she ran for some reason she couldn't quite work out. They came to a cross roads they had already passed and ran down a side path, hiding around the corner as the trundling sound of the Dalek followed. Jack appeared to be grinning too, ready to kick should the Dalek come down their chosen path. There was another, slightly indecisive cry of "Exterminate!" and it went straight across, bypassing the two hiding figures and going down an already trodden path, back into the labyrinth.

They waited in silence for a second, then emerged, both grinning and ran down the path opposite to the one the Dalek had disappeared down. A few more corners and one dead end later, Rose gratefully kissed the familiar white door, Jack demanding one two. Instead, he got an unimpressed look and a dismissive shake of her head, but she was grinning all the time.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The Doctor had his hands in his pockets, and was watching the spire with interest. He couldn't be very far, but the opening he was looking for seemed to purposefully evade its seeker. He just couldn't seem to find the path that would take him there. He came to another intersection and picked the path he didn't think he'd been down yet, in a direction that would possibly come out at the spire later on.

He saw a flash of gold just before coming into contact with the person wearing it. It was a memory he had had half a mind to watch out for, not because of fear, but because it was the sort of thing the Toymaker would bring up.

"Reinette," he said softly to her. She stood before him, looking exactly like she had when he had last seen her, even wearing the same dress. She brought back the grief he had felt at loosing her, made all the more worse by the face that he _knew_ she wasn't real. He looked at her, unsure of what to say.

"You are to be congratulated on your persistence. So here you are. My lonely angel. Stuck on the slow path, with me." She was smiling at him, that soft smile he remembered. The Doctor didn't want to destroy her, but he had to. She was here as an obstacle of the mind, and he had to get to Rose. _Rose._

"Do you ever get used to this? Oh, Doctor. So lonely. So very, very, alone. How can you bear it?"

She had meant his childhood when she originally said it, but now, alone in this maze, it seemed even more painful. But he could remind himself. He wasn't alone. He had Rose. Reinette loved him, he knew. It was in her eyes right now before him. He had thought he loved her too, when he met her, but had since realised it wasn't love, merely a connection to a historical figure. He cared about her, yes, and been distraught when she died, sure, but it was Rose who had his love and soul. Always had been, even though he didn't know and wouldn't admit to himself when he worked it out.

"One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel," Reinette was saying. "It's the way it's _always_ been. The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other."

The Doctor approached her slowly, cautiously. She was still smiling at him, but it seemed slightly lifeless, her eyes dead and unseeing beyond the boundaries of memory. "I have seen the world inside you head, and know that all things are possible."

The Doctor gently placed his hands on her arms, kissed her softly on the forehead and simply said, "Goodbye, Reinette." He didn't let her answer, but increased the pressure on her arms and closed his eyes as she ceased to be.

He shook his head slightly, raised his eyes to the seemingly-impossible-to-get-to-spire and carried on, trying to put his mind to something different than Reinette. He'd just killed her. That made it twice. He was thankful there was nothing about the Time War here, at least nothing he'd run into. He didn't know if he could've handled it, especially without Rose to remind him of all the good things in life.

Speaking of Rose…he could hear her. He grinned, hurried forward and out into a clear space with a typical white door against a wall. Rose ran towards him and he hugged her, glad to be back with her again. Then he noticed another figure.

"I'm getting sick of these memories," he said to Rose, who simply grinned back at him.

Jack was watching them. "Doctor?"

He turned to face Jack. "Yeah, memory boy?"

"I'm no memory. You can come try and make me shatter, if you want."

The Doctor looked at Rose, who nodded at him. So the Doctor made his way over to Jack and placed a hand firmly on Jack's chest, and pressed. Nothing. With a gleeful shout, he pulled Jack into a hug. "Jack! God, never expected you!"

Jack laughed, returning, the hug, then pushing the Doctor away so he could look at him. "Rose said you'd regenerated," said Jack, as he flicked his eyes up and down the Doctor, who held his arms out to be inspected. "You're pretty cute, now."

"Are you saying I wasn't before?" the Doctor asked, acting hurt. "I'm kidding. I like my new body. So does she," he added, nudging Rose, who grinned at him and smacked him playfully on the arm. "But you do, no denying it."

"So, said Jack, "This door the one to the next level, or game or whatever?"

"Yeah, should be." The Doctor put his hand out to it, but Rose stopped him.

"Listen…"

They could hear a trundling sound. The Doctor looked at Rose. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah. Couldn't get near it to shatter it, so had to run instead. It's armed, see."

The Doctor opened the door, ushering the other two inside. "I've no want of meeting it again, memory or not, thanks." He pulled the door, cutting short the familiar warcry.

"Extermin–"

"Much better…"

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So now it's the heroic three! Team TARDIS or whatever you want to call them. Reviews make me smile and write faster.


	8. Round Six: Armaments

Woah, definitely didn't mean this kind of gap in updates! I've been busy with stuff for university, work, and of course rehearsing for my production of _RENT_! Man, it's gonna be so good – we're on in just under a month; everyone's so exited. So, yeah, that's my excuse…

Oh, and there's a Jack spoiler in this chapter. If you've seen Torchwood, no worries (Oh my god, we might be getting it in NZ!!!!!!) but if you haven't then I'm really sorry. It was so big that I couldn't really ignore it, you know?

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"Extermin–"

"Much better…" The Doctor grinned, before turning to Jack. "Time for twenty questions, Captain…by the way, you've got no ship, so you're not a captain, are you? Ah, demoted, so sorry…anyway, your sudden and completely unforeseen appearance is, without a doubt, suspicious. What are you doing here?"

"No idea."

"How did you get here?"

"Not a clue."

"What do you last remember?"

"Going to sleep, on Earth."

"How did you survive?"

Jack paused for a second before answering, thrown off by the different line of questioning. "Uh, just…woke up. One minute I had two Daleks facing me, then I was opening my eyes, dust in front of me. Don't ask me what _really_ happened."

"What were you doing in the Labyrinth? How many questions is that?" The Doctor added to Rose in an undertone.

"Five. Six if you count the one directed at me." She muttered in response.

"I was _in_ it, literally. I fell into an oubliette…" Jack's face went ever so slightly red. "Wasn't…uh…watching where I was going."

"Heard that before," grinned Rose, shrugging.

The Doctor shrugged too, in an indifferent way. Rose could see something was up even though he wasn't saying anything. Jack, on the other hand, had finally taken a decent look at where they were, and was now examining a rack of guns at the other end of the room. Rose put them out of her mind for the moment, taking the chance to talk to the Doctor.

"What's up?"

"I can't work out why the Toymaker would bring him here. Or, if it really is him, for that matter. I know, I know," he said, cutting Rose off as she began to speak, "Jack's solidity proved him in the maze. But how can we be sure?"

"It feels like Jack. Hollywood, yeah, I know," said Rose, rolling her eyes at how clichéd it sounded. "But it does." She paused as the Doctor scratched the back of his neck, a sure sign he was uncomfortable. "There's something else?"

"Just the maze, bringing back memories. I saw Reinette."

Rose put her hand gently on his arm. "Yeah. I saw Mickey. I thought you were a bit distracted when you met us. You didn't seen to find Jack's appearance unordinary until we came through to here."

"I was momentarily distracted; lost in thought." He glanced over at where Jack was closely inspecting one of the guns. "I want to know why he's here. And why him, but not anyone else? Mickey, Jackie – I met your mother, too, I don't wanna go there again – or any number of people we've met. It's just weird…maybe to throw us off, maybe there's something else sinister ahead. I know what you mean about him though, there's a certain Jack-ness about him…is that a plasma rifle?" He called across to Jack, face suddenly lighting up in a curious grin. Rose rolled her eyes as he went over to Jack. The short attention span strikes again.

Jack handed the gun over. "Sure is. Nice make, too. Got any idea why we've been left weapons?"

Rose remembered about her computer at that point. For something that provided so much information, it was surprisingly light and easy to forget. She glanced down, noticing the words were already on the screen – it must have beeped when she had been talking to the Doctor, her mind occupied by other things.

Round six: Armaments. Select a weapon and make your way to the exit door at the opposing end of the research base. Search for keycards and authorisation, dispose of obstacles and retain your health.

"Hang on, '_dispose of obstacles'_?" said Jack, looking up from his own wrist.

"I'm more worried about _'retain your health'_," Rose replied, pulling a face. "I think we've got things to fight…"

"I think you'd be right," said the Doctor, who had put the plasma rifle down and was investigating another gun. "What do you want, Jack?"

"Ah, plasma rifle for me. Outta all these, that's the one."

"I thought you didn't like guns," Rose said to the Doctor.

"I don't," he said meaningfully. "_But_ that doesn't mean I don't know about them and how to use them. There have been times when I have had to use them." He avoided her eyes as he picked up another gun, testing its weight in his hand. Rose's first thought was of the Time War, but it easily could have been something different.

The Doctor put down the gun he was holding, running his hand lightly over the collection before picking one up; a smallish firearm that could be held with one or two hands, black in colour. He passed it across to Rose, who took it carefully, holding it gently so as not to be trigger-happy.

Jack had put down his coveted plasma rifle, and came up behind her, showing her how to hold it, how to steady her hands when aiming, and generally, how to use it. It produced laser bolts, and didn't have much recoil. Rose felt that the weight was strange yet comforting in her hands. She put the safety on like Jack had taught her and put it back on the edge of the table.

The Doctor had chosen his own firearm, along the same lines as Rose's but slightly bigger and more old-school-science-fiction looking than hers. He saw her watching and pulled a face. "I don't like them. But, when we're here, at the mercy of someone like the Toymaker, I won't complain when a weapon is on offer."

Jack was standing by the door, like an impatient child waiting to go on an outing. Rose joined him, gun now back in her hand, and flicked her eyes down – by chance – to the computer. And so she was the one who first saw the small coloured bar that was stretched across the screen. Health. A health meter. Oh, this day was just getting better and better…

"Doctor, check this out…" She showed him the meter as he walked over, and he looked at his own. "We've got health measures. That can't be good…"

Jack had one too. The three of them looked warily at one another, Jack's hand on the access panel of the door. "Shall we, then?"

The door hissed open, a definite change from its elegant and plain counterparts. Those doors were usually silent. Quietness was beyond the door, eerie and unnerving. A dark corridor, grilling on the floor and lit with pale emergency lights. The Doctor murmured something about a sanctuary base, and Rose reminded him that the computer had said it was a research base or something. He had nodded at this, pointing to the end of the corridor where a sign gave directions on how to get to the different facilities.

There was nothing but the hiss of steam and the drip of water. The corridor before them was deserted, and Jack, in complete military style, ran ahead and carefully looked around the corner. He ducked back round after a quick moment, whispering back to the Doctor and Rose. "There's a body there. Looks like it's been ripped apart."

Rose swallowed hard. This was _not_ going to be pretty. When she got to the corner, the Doctor slightly behind her, she peeked around the edge of the corner, drawing back hastily with a gasp. The man – at least, what was left of him – was leaning against a wall, sickly pale. His legs were gone, blood spread across the floor and splattered on the walls. Rose swallowed and looked back around, trying to be logical. The blood was dark, so, not fresh. "What the hell could have done that?" she asked, feeling her voice shake and being annoyed at herself.

"No idea," said the Doctor after he had looked. "But whatever it is, it's got claws."

Tense now, the three of them edged past the remnants of the body, trying not to imagine the sort of creature that ripped its victims apart. The base, or whatever it was, was quiet, but not absolutely silent. There was definitely a presence of some kind lurking in the walls. For some reason, this was even worse than it being completely silent.

Rose could feel the claustrophobic fear from the concealment game beginning to return. This time, though, they could fight. It wasn't purely a cat and mouse, this time they could fight back. And besides, this place was better lit. There were still numerous shadows that could conceal any amount of things, but she could see. And having both the Doctor _and_ Jack with her made it all the better.

Both of the aforementioned males, Jack especially, were cautiously glaring into the shadows ahead as they crept along. There was growling coming from somewhere near them, a low, scratchy croak. Rose's hands tightened on her gun, being careful not to touch the trigger. Jack, who was in front, brought his gun up and sprang around a corner.

There was a roar and the sound of the plasma rifle, then the sound of a body hitting the metal grating on the floor. Jack reappeared, the barrel of his gun smoking, his hand wiping flecks of blood – not his own – from his face. "All clear."

The Doctor and Rose approached him, their guns lowered. Around the corner was a body, a hole in its chest illustrating exactly what damage Jack had done. It was humanoid, but clearly an alien or demon of some kind. The hands were three fingered, the fingers themselves talon-like blades. The skin of the creature was an unholy grey colour, and

its face was a mess of evil. Rose shuddered as she passed it, the open eyes lifeless but still seemingly watching.

"You think that was what killed the guy we saw before?" She asked in a whisper, surprised at how stable and calm her voice sounded.

"I think so. And I'm guessing there are a lot more of them…" The Doctor trailed off, peeking into a dimly lit side-room. He withdrew, horror and disgust on his face. "And I'm so sorry for anyone that worked here…there are three more bodies in there."

Rose resisted the horrifying yet curiously strange urge to look in, walking past and forward to Jack, who was up by a security door. His head was leaning against it – he was listening. "There's something moving around in there," he whispered to Rose when she was close. "I think I can hear growling, too. The door's so thick I could be mistaken, though…"

The Doctor looked at Jack as the ex-time agent raised his gun. "When you're ready, Doc. Rose, stay back."

The Doctor placed his hand onto the access panel and the door hissed open. Jack, gun raised and testosterone almost coming out his ears, sprang through. Rose, scared as hell but determined not to be a damsel in distress who only needed saving, followed, the Doctor behind her.

There was a dead body just beyond the doorway, then the room widened. Rose could see columns – god knows what was being concealed behind those. There was a growl. A creature, like the one Jack had shot before, ran at them, followed by three more. Jack was the first to open fire, Rose spurned into action by fear and surprise.

A distinct surprise was that one of the creatures (with no elongated caws) launched a kind if fireball at them. Jack dodged it aside, but another one caught his arm and he yelled in pain and anger. It seemed only one of the four could do it, but when the four creatures lay dead (as far as she could tell later, Jack had killed two, herself and the Doctor one apiece), Jack was the only one injured. Leaning over his shoulder, Rose saw his health meter had dropped down ten percent. She was wondering what to do when the Doctor (always resourceful) appeared with a small box. Opening it next to Jack, the three travellers watched a small swam of familiar golden dots heal Jack's arm and vanish.

"Were they nanogens?" asked Rose as Jack inspected his newly healed arm.

"Apparently. And as Jack's health measure is now back to full and his burn is gone, I'd say that they are the way to stop death," was the Doctor's reply.

The door at the other end of the room refused to open. It required a keycard, which they didn't have. As Rose and the Doctor searched the current room they were in (not hard, as there were only a few pillars, no furnishings or anything. They did find another health pack, though) Jack elected to retrace their steps; but came back empty-handed. Rose was getting irritated – the key had to be somewhere…

Firing her gun at a wall in exasperation (making, she noted with a private smile, both the Doctor and Jack jump), she laughed aloud as part of the wall fell away – revealing a hidden chamber beyond. And within, she found and triumphantly returned with a health pack, a gun – and the needed keycard.

Jack shook his head at the newly discovered gun, and the health pack wouldn't open, as all of them were fine. But the keycard did exactly as was needed, and the door slid open, revealing the room beyond. And those waiting within.

Caught by surprise, Jack went down, a fireball hitting him squarely in the chest. There was no scream, no yell, he was caught completely off guard and he was on the ground before Rose could move. She was on her knees next to him, checking him, calling him, but there was no response - Jack's chest was a mass of blood and burns. Gunfire went on above her as the Doctor took care of the monsters, but soon silence descended. Jack wasn't showing any signs of life; his health meter had fallen to twenty as soon as he was hit, and fell rapidly to zero as Rose watched.

Rose was crying – he had only just met back up with them! He couldn't be dead, no way…more nanogens, found by the silent Doctor, did nothing.

He could hear growling – more creatures were coming, and neither him nor Rose was in a state to fight. "Rose," he whispered to her, "Rose, we have to go."

"We can't just leave him!"

"Rose," he pulled her up gently, "I don't want to leave him either – but there's something coming. _We have to get out of here_." She came with him as they ran, even though he wished that it hadn't happened. _They_ had to get out of here alive…

Down another corridor, to a security door. The growls had faded now, and the Doctor thought they could let down their guard safely. He pulled Rose into a hug (granted, a little awkward carrying firearms) and she cried softly in his arms. The Doctor himself felt almost indifferent – he had been the witness to so much death, so much destruction, that death's effect was muted to him. It still hurt, but in a dull aching kind of way, not the sharpness or shock that Rose was going through.

When she pulled away from him, her eyes were dry. She opened the door and shot both the creatures inside before any damage could be made, to the Doctor's surprise and amazement. She was using her grief as a shield. Strong, yes – but dangerous.

The room was a narrow path through a green liquid of some kind.

"Toxic, I think. It usually is," said the Doctor in response to Rose's unasked question as they walked through to another keycard door. A roar behind them (but, above them?) made them turn. The culprit was on a balcony of sorts, in the corner. It was a clawed one, not capable of attacking from a distance, luckily. Rose shot in its direction and it fell from view.

"What do we do now? We only found the one card…"

The Doctor wasn't listening; he was looking up at the balcony. "Can you see a passage there?" And with that, he ran off, back the way they had come, through the security door and to the passageway. Lifting his gun, he fired in a horizontal line, grinning as one shot passed through the wall altogether. "Secret passage!"

The wall didn't break like it had last time, it was merely a hologram stretched over the opening. Through it, they found a passage with another dead body, but then some stair, which led to the balcony – and up there, hidden in the shadows, a new gun and a keycard.

The next room contained a clawed creature and a fireball spitter. After a frenzied moment of shooting (this room was almost pitch black, the only light coming from the staircase which led off it), Rose and the Doctor carried on. The fireball creature had been dealt with early, illuminating himself by throwing his weapons. The clawed one had been quieter, and had snuck up on them – Rose bore the marks of it's attack, long but shallow claw marks on her back.

As a painful and long climb up the stairs ended, the Doctor found himself and Rose trapped between two creatures of the clawed variety. Not good – the stairs had caused both of them to become tired, and the claw marks on Rose meant she wasn't in good shape. At least there were no fireballs. True, they managed to shoot both creatures, but not without both of them getting hurt a little. The Doctor found Rose a health pack in the corner, and she sighed in relief as the scratch marks on her back healed up and she returned to full health.

There was another through the next door, one that the Doctor had his sights on for himself, but it was guarded. As he went to pick it up from its position on the path between two pits of toxic waste, he saw a flicker of movement and a fireball flew at him, making him jump back. There was a hidden alcove with a fireball-spitting creature there. Oh great.

He shot at it, continuously avoiding the deadly missiles, and couldn't help but smile grimly as it fell, dead. True, killing things was generally against his morals where it could be helped – but these _things_, these creations of the Toymaker's, hardly counted. They weren't alive, they had no history, and they were only pawns in a game.

He started as Rose flew past him, jumping into the toxic waste…no not in, over. She went into the alcove, picking up a keycard.

"We might need this, I think."

The Doctor helped her jump back across; pulling her to him so she couldn't fall. Her closeness in that one moment made him feel at ease. No matter what was through this next door, they would get through it – they had to. And she sure as hell wasn't going to die here.

He took the keycard from her, putting it in the slot the door had for it. "I can't help but think we've been lucky. There is _so_ much more that could be done with this sort of thing, but it's been relatively easy." He caught her eyes and added in a softer voice, "Jack was caught unprepared. We all were."

She nodded, eyes clear and hard. "So, what do you mean?"

"I think that beyond this door is going to be something massive." He kissed her briefly, just in case. "Shall we?"

She nodded, raising her gun. "Do it."

The door opened onto a corridor, but a larger room was evidently at the end of it. Yet another ripped apart scientist body, and another creature…and another…the room opened up into a room the size of a football field. Small, meter high walls dissected it in wedges and provided cover, but apart from that, the room was open. Rose counted seven creatures as she and the Doctor ducked back round into the passageway, of both the clawed and fireball varieties. That wasn't the problem though – what _was_ the problem was the fact that in the centre of the room was a very tall, very dangerous looking demon of some kind, holding a large gun.

The Doctor and Rose shared a glance. The room was full of growls and noise, so the first creature was taken out with no trouble at all. That gave the Doctor and Rose a chance to shelter behind the first wall. Five of the other creatures were taken out with little trouble (by using the wall as a barricade and firing over the top – mind you, one was a lucky stray shot, as the creature was in the opposite corner). One was causing a bit of trouble by being positioned on top of a tower, but there was nothing that could be done – as the major demon had noticed them shooting its allies.

They split up, running, shooting, ducking. The demon shot after both of them, roaring in anger. One of the shots caught the Doctor on the leg, almost sending him into a pool of green toxic waste, and he fell with a Gallifreyian curse (coincidentally and luckily next to a med pack. Still, it meant the demon's focus was Rose for a few moments). She had managed to get herself into the cover of a far wall while the demon was trying to kill the Doctor, but had the added annoyance of ducking from fireballs to add to the difficulty.

The Doctor was trying to kill the creature, most of his shots hitting home, but he needed her help. It was going to take a lot of firepower to get this guy down. Rose wanted to help, needed to, but the fireballs were distracting her somewhat, so she started to concentrate her fire at the fireball-flinging creature above her. She was shaking so much most of her shots missed, but after hearing more roaring and Gallifreyian (and human) cursing, fired off a last volley and laughed aloud as the creature was struck and fell from the tower.

She turned her gun onto the demon, but her ammunition was low. By the look the Doctor gave her, he was too. The demon was bleeding, but showed no other signs of dying. The Doctor bolted over to Rose, firing his last shots as he went. He smiled at her as the cowered from the demon, together. They kissed, waiting for the bright light and noise of the demon's gun.

It wasn't the demon's gun they heard, but another. Heavy, powerful shots rang out, and the demon roared _– screamed _– and fell, shaking the floor. The Doctor was the first to tentatively peek over the top of the wall they were sheltering behind.

"Jack?!"

For Jack it was, standing beside the bloody corpse of the demon, a gun, bigger than the original plasma rifle, in his hand. He was grinning at them, as real – and alive – as ever.

"You died…" Rose said, an incredulous tone in her voice.

"Oh, yeah - did I neglect to mention I'm immortal?" He grinned at them.

The Doctor was now smiling in disbelieving confusion. "You? Immortal? How the hell did you manage that?"

"It was after…_whatever_ happened on the Gamestation. Don't ask me, I don't know. But now, I can't die…and _don't_ get any ideas, you two," he added, seeing the two of them share a glance. "Every time I die, I black out for an unknowable amount of time. _And_ I still feel the pain. Hurts like hell."

Rose could only smile and hug him. After all, it's not like people come back from the dead everyday. The Doctor excluded, of course.

"Immortal? Honestly, it would be you…" said the Doctor as they walked towards a security door, they key for which Jack had produced with a typical flourish.

"Curse and gift. Truth be told I was trying to find you before this," Jack motioned at the walls, "so you could, you know, help me with it and the like. Don't age, either. But anyway, I'm okay now, found myself a nice new gun and a bonus keycard." He held up his gun, grinning like a schoolboy.

Jack had passed they keycard to Rose, who activated the door. Jack was through the door, whooping and yelling, as soon as he could be. Rose couldn't help but laugh at him as he quickly – and accurately disposed of the four creatures, all clawed, who appeared from alcoves in the walls. Rose dropped her gun, the Doctor following suit, as ahead of them was the familiar white door.

"Place you bets, what are we playing next?"

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Well, there we go. Sorry if I've got any of the immortality stuff wrong, I read what I could find on Wikipedia and used that. Hope this chapter was okay!


	9. Round Seven: Snakes and Ladders

Glad people liked that last chapter. Onwards and upwards we go!

(And sorry about the delay. This chapter refused to be written, so my humble apologies if it's not as good as some of the past ones. I don't think it is, personally…but you are my judges, not me)

Disclaimer: The Doctor? Oh, he's locked in my wardrobe…in my mind…sigh

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"I'd say we're playing the invigorating game _See Who Dies of Hunger Last in a Dungeon_."

"Wow, Jack, how'd you guess?" Rose replied sarcastically. "Was it the stone walls? Or maybe the torches? Or maybe it was the bars on the door?"

Jack rolled her eyes at her, his face falling as the gun he was holding from the previous game faded to nothing in his hands. "Aw, that's just unfair!"

"Welcome to the Toymaker's world…" the Doctor announced to him with a twisted smile. "Sorry Jack – that's just how this place works."

Jack looked from the Doctor to Rose. "So what _are_ we doing here?"

"Waiting for information. No point going ahead if we're not meant to, of if there's a maniac waiting for us. Or if maybe there is no room at all…what do _you_ think is through the door?"

Rose and Jack thought for a moment. "Cybermen." Rose stated after a moment, but she was grinning.

"Slitheen!" Jack chimed in.

"Werewolf…"

"Daleks."

"Krillitanes?"

"No, I think it'll be Jackie Tyler…" The Doctor had hardly got the words out before Rose hit him. Jack was laughing too, but he was hit second. They were spared any more abuse at Rose's hands (although it was in fun, and they _did_ deserve it…) when the computers chimed.

Rose read hers and exclaimed, "You're kidding! I haven't played in years…"

"Somehow, I don't think the Toymaker kids very much…but it _is_ my favourite game!" But sure enough, there it was on screen.

_Round seven: Snakes and Ladders. Use the dice and move the appropriate number or rooms. Ladders allow you to traverse floors; snakes mean your movement is downward. _

"Dice?" asked Jack.

"Here…" Rose picked up three small cubes from the floor. "They're normal size. Somehow I thought they'd be bigger or something…how do they work?"

The Doctor and Jack glanced at one another, before saying in unison, "Rose, you throw them."

"Shut up, yeah? I meant they're so small, we could cheat."

"I guess we find that out when we begin. Speaking of which, I think we should. We have to sometime."

The door swung open without a sound. Jack went a head, walking solidly into a force field of some kind, which kept him from exiting. The Doctor immediately began to examine the doorframe, muttering to Jack about what could be keeping them in there, what year it was from, which technology it could be adapted from…

Rose watched them, thinking. Then, it clicked. She bent down, and rolled her dice. It was worth her silence to see the looks on Jack and the Doctor's faces as she passed them, walking simply and easily through door. They both tried and couldn't get through.

"How did you do that?"

"Oh, useful, aren't you? The simple answer is usually the best."

The Doctor was scrutinising her, but then his face broke into a grin and he held up the cube of crystal. "I'm right, aren't I?"

He rolled it and walked forward to join her, the force filed vanishing. Jack followed his example, but still couldn't get through. He tried again, getting increasingly annoyed. "Doc, what number did you roll?"

"One…" his lie was unconvincing.

"You're doing it on purpose! I can't go until you're moved!"

Pulling a childish face, the Doctor walked through to the next room, and the next, stopping at the fourth. "Your turn, Jack," he called back in a sing-song voice.

Jack stopped before reaching him, having rolled a three. So this was how it was to go. A straightforward game of snakes and ladders, although nether obstacle had been reached. It was on Jack's third roll that he passed the Doctor and Rose both and came to find a tail hanging in the corner of the room. It was reptilian, it was yellow and green, and it was swaying slightly, dropping through a hole in the ceiling.

"Hey, I found a tail!" he called back, to receive disbelieving noises from his fellow players, and a reply.

"Yes, snakes have tails, you know. They are part of our natural structure, human."

Jack did a double take. "Guys…the snakes can talk…"

"Really?" asked the Doctor, passing through on his roll. "That makes it interesting…oh, I found stairs to the next level. Rose, your roll."

Rose came and stood next to Jack, staring at the tail with mild curiosity, as he took his roll and groaned, having only to move to the next room and no further.

It was on the next level it began to get interesting. Now ladders were beginning to be passed, and the upper parts on snakes too – some perfectly willing to talk, others gave a polite nod as they passed. Rose was the first to get a ladder, though only to the next level, and the Doctor was the first to get a snake, sliding down the snake's body with a muttered curse.

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"So, what's it like?" asked Jack.

"Well, it's fine, mostly. Sometimes the snakes in the near rooms are willing to talk, other times it's really quiet so you just think. It's much more interesting now that you're here." The snake gave a sort-of shrug, smiling at Jack. He was a typical snake green, with small flecks of black and red.

"Jack," said the Doctor, passing through to the room beyond, "Jack, are you _flirting_ with a snake?"

"I'm only talking to it!"

"Flirting for you, that is…anyway, if you're talking to it, then you can see the head, and doesn't that mean you should be slipping down?" He looked to the snake for an answer.

"Oh, I'm from up there, really," the snake replied, it's head indicating a hole in the roof. "But I was bored."

The Doctor shrugged, pulling a face. "All right…" He walked through to a room a few doors away, his face amused but unreadable beyond that.

Jack flicked his dice from his hands to the floor, grinning as he rolled a five. "I'll see you later. Maybe on the next level?" And with that he jogged through five rooms (passing the Doctor with a smirk), and up a ladder with a triumphant cry. Rose soon joined him, after ending in the same room and climbing up the ladder (she had had an unfortunate roll and landed on long snake just before).

"How you going?" She asked as son as she saw Jack, who was leaning against the wall casually, arms crossed and staring at the ceiling.

"Oh fine, avoiding snakes when I can. They're interesting to talk to, though."

"You've been talking to them?" Rose asked incredulously. "Trust you…"

"He's been flirting," said the Doctor as he walked in. "Hello, I rolled a six. And I caught him at it before."

"Oh, that was not flirting!" Jack cried in defence, as the Doctor nudged him, saying "Your turn, Jakie-boy."

Jack glared at him. "Don't call me that!" But he rolled none the less and walked ahead four rooms, before waving cheekily and climbing quickly up a ladder.

The Doctor and Rose watched him go. They grinned at one another, but Rose couldn't help dampening the atmosphere by asking, "Should we be worried? Or is this going to get harder?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it is impossible to win; maybe there will be many more traps in the topmost few levels. Maybe there will be nothing."

Rose nodded, talking her roll and leaving his side. The game continued. Usually the three players were close enough to have short conversations, but all three were wary for any change in the game's environment. All that seemed to change was the number of snakes encountered; there were more of them. One corridor had a snake almost every room – only certain dice rolls would achieve safe passage.

The three of them spent a while slipping down the snakes, swearing and cursing when the initial carefree intention wore off. This was beginning to get idiotic – they had to get past to get up the staircase to the last corridor, and finish this game, finish all the games and get the TARDIS back. Jack was the first to get across properly, his cheer echoing down the corridor back to the other two, both heading back to the beginning of the corridor hoping to achieve the right numbers.

Rose was in between the rooms of snakes; all she needed was a two and she'd be safe. Any more and she might be slipping back down. Trusting to luck, she threw the dice, flinching as the crystal cube clattered into the corner. Three.

Damn. Rose avoided the last snake room, but the first of the next level had a smiling reptilian and Rose had no choice but to go back the room which she had just left. The Doctor didn't have much more luck, the roll of the dice stopping him the second room in and forcing him to fall back to the lower level.

There was a multitude of swearing, and Jack appeared in the same room as Rose, warning her of a higher level that had a snake that sent him down to the same room she got halted on, and forcing the player to go down _two _snakes, not one. Rose made a mental note to avoid that room at all costs.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Honestly, how many more levels are there?" Rose asked the Doctor as she passed him a while later. "This is getting tedious…and my legs are aching."

"I know. We must be near the end; the Toymaker can't like to leave us here for so long…surely he must be getting bored, watching us do the same things. Or is there something ahead that we won't expect? Some other level, a major change or shock, like last time…the keys and then the concealment? Such a drastic change; we weren't expecting…"

"He might be doing the same, yeah?"

The Doctor pulled a face. "Could be. But back to the game at hand…is Jack ahead of you, or behind us?"

"Behind, if the string of curses can be used as evidence…he went down."

"Right. Well, on you go!" he gave a her shooing motion with his hands, and she shook her head at him, smiling, before disappearing out the door and up the flight of stars in the next room which led to the next level.

As she stopped, she looked ahead, down the doorways to the end of the corridor. For once, she was glad to see the door, no matter what might be on the other side. She called back out, hoping her voice would travel down the various gaps for snakes and ladders and back to the other two, telling them that the end was in sight – literally, for her.

There was a muffles cheer and comment of some kind (although the walls kept her from understanding what it was) and Rose heard footsteps behind her as the Doctor appeared, stopping in the room behind her.

"Jack?" Rose called in the direction of the stairwell. "Jack, where are you?"

"About to kill something," came the muffled reply. Oh, he was close then, close enough to hear her. Good. "I can see the stairs," he continued. "I'm three rooms away, with a snake in my path."

"I'm only doing my job!" came a snippy reply; a fourth voice. Rose and the Doctor exchanged a look, both figuring it must be the aforementioned snake. A conversation sprang up, Jack defending his statement and the snake trying to make a point.

"So I'm just 'a snake'? Do you have any idea how degrading that is?"

"Look, you can call me 'a human' if it would make you feel better about it." Jack's voice had a resigned tone.

"I have a name! You didn't even think about asking, did you?"

"Look, I hate to interrupt this little domestic spat," called the Doctor, "but can you make your move, Jack?"

There was a silence from the below floors. Jack soon appeared in the stairwell, leaning against the wall with an indifferent look his face, his roll stopping him from moving any further. "What?"

The Doctor and Rose glanced at one another, and then burst out in giggles. "Trouble in paradise?" asked Rose with a smile, to which Jack glared at her. She turned away, the childish smile still on her face and took her roll. It took her to the room before the end, skipping her over a snake. She only needed a one.

The Doctor managed to land on the snake, giving a particularly loud curse before vanishing down a level. Jack got to the end on his next roll, and he had a distinct smug skip in his step as he did so. Rose sat next to the doorway the offered her freedom and lazily skimmed the die, watching with mounting irritation as it refused to show the solitary dot she needed.

The boredom was broken (luckily) by Jack, who gave her company on his side of the doorway, and then by the Doctor, who reappeared, then vanished down the same snake with an even louder curse than before. Rose was still laughing when he appeared, irritation evident on his face. He finally got to the same position as Rose, stuck trying to roll a one.

The die rolls soon turned into a flicking-the-die-at-each other match, so it was a second before Rose noticed she had actually managed to roll a one, and could now pass through to the final room. The Doctor took only a few more rolls, threatening the die every time it failed, but soon fate yielded and he was finished.

They faced the door, waiting for something, anything to happen.

"You think there might be more of this game on the other side?" asked Rose as the thought hit her.

"There better not be," Jack replied simply. "Or I'll probably do something stupid."

"Oh, then that would be _so_ different…" the Doctor muttered, but Jack's reply was cut off as the doors opened, revealing the next game.

Through the doors was only darkness.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

So, what's next? What is the next torment for the valiant Team TARDIS? Tune in…sometime very soon…and find out!


	10. Round Eight: Laser Strike

Bows to readers My most humble apologies for not updating for so long! The production I'm in, RENT, started on February 22, and I haven't had a moment to myself since. The week before was spent doing lat minute jobs and the like, and I've basically been at the theatre every night for about two weeks (I'm a complete devotee to theatre, so I was helping the crew and technical boys as much as I could as well as being in the cast). On a positive note, it's going really well – we got some really good reviews, and every one's happy.

Almost cooler still – I started Uni a few days ago! WOOT!

Oh, and about the characters…they're still in their boxes, in perfect condition. If they were mine, they'd be broken by now from too much play.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

There was a definite pause, before Jack said, "Darkness. Original."

Rose grinned, but the Doctor was stony silent beside her. "_Darkness is to space what silence is to sound – the interval._ That was said by a nice man by the name of Marshal McLuhan. Canadian sociologist," he added, seeing Rose's enquiring look.

Jack poked his head into the room. "There are some dim lights, and I can make out walls of some kind. He stepped in, becoming a shadowy figure to the Doctor and Rose. There was another moment's silence, before Jack gave some kind of sound, a cross between a shriek and a laugh, and re-appeared in the doorway with a gun.

Rose was instantly reminded of the typical sci-fi gun she had used a few games ago. This one even seemed to be made out of plastic, with fake lights. Jack fired into a wall – a bolt of dim red laser hissing into its target and leaving a singe mark behind. Rose shook her head slowly. "That looks like the ones in the old _Star Wars_ movies. Like, exactly."

"The thing is," said the Doctor, giving her an understanding glance, "You're right. They do…"

"Reminds me of Laser Quest!" Jack grinned. "I was so good at that as a kid."

"Laser Quest?" asked Rose.

"Two teams, you run round in a dark room, shoot the members of the opposing team on these special packs which register how many times it's been shot. At the end, it's the team with the least points who wins, as they've been shot the least amount of times."

The Doctor had been listening closely to Jack's explanation, his mind figuring the game even before he was informed by the computer on his wrist. "Well, what do you know…" he murmured, half to himself, but loud enough to get the attention of the others. "Jack, for once, you're right…"

Round eight. Laser Strike. Eliminate the eight members of the opposing team without being eliminated yourself. Only one may be left standing.

Jack whooped as he read, grabbing his gun. Rose, by now, had made her way into the entrance of the darkened arena and found two more guns, one for herself and one for the Doctor. He walked over the room threshold and took it from her as the door closed and they were plunged into darkness.

It took a moment, but the dim lighting was made more pronounced as their eyes adjusted and they could see walls and obstacles were scattered around. The room was quite large, and apparently deserted. The Doctor edged forward, his gun raised.

"So the guns are real, right?" Rose whispered. "And if we get seen, we get shot, and if we get shot…" she didn't need to finish.

The Doctor nodded. "Concealment with guns. More dangerous."

Rose swallowed, fear knotting in her throat. So they had been right – the snakes and ladders had been merely a device to throw them off, so they would be unprepared for this.

Together they crept around the edge, searching in vain for their 'opponents' – but there was no sign of anyone. The feeling of unease – and that they were being watched – was growing, and it got to the point where Jack was restless with the amount of non-action going on.

"I'm gonna head off in the opposite direction, just in case we're being followed." Seeing Rose's look, he added. "Sweetheart, I'm immortal. I'll be fine." And he grinned cockily as he turned and jogged away into the semi-darkness. Rose bit her lip as she watched him go. Immortality _did_ mean he was, well, immortal, but he still felt the pain and she didn't want anything to happen to him anyway. The Doctor took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"He'll be fine."

The words had hardly left his mouth before there was the sound of laser-fire, and a triumphant whoop from the direction Jack had come from. The Doctor grinned reassuringly at Rose. "See?"

She smiled, her fear for Jack subsiding. Turning a corner, her and the Doctor came face to face with one of the opposition.

It was impossible to tell the gender of the figure. They were dressed in black with a black mask over their face, hiding all identity. The movements, as their gun was raised, were quick and jerky. The Doctor pushed Rose and himself back around the corner as a laser bolt thudded into the wall.

Without a moment's hesitation, and reminding Rose of how changeable he was and how steeled he could be, the Doctor swung his own gun around the wall and fired rapidly, features unreadable as there was a thud – something – a body – falling to the ground.

"Are you alright?"

Rose nodded in answer, and slowly followed the Doctor to where he was kneeling down next to the still figure. His hand paused at the edge of the mask, before curiosity got the better of him and he swept it aside. Beneath was a familiar face, one seen very recently, and Rose brought a hand up to her face as the Doctor dropped the mask back in place, concealing Magpie's face.

"Magpie?" Rose whispered, horror across her face.

"It's not him, it just looks like him. It's not even a memory, like the labyrinth, just an image. I wonder who else might be walking around this place?" The Doctor caught Rose's eye, caught the resilient glint and the horror therein. He stood, placing a hand on her cheek. "Rose, we have to keep going. These are not the people we have met and helped, they only look like them to try and throw us off. We have to keep going, we must complete this game."

She nodded, sadness and steel mixing in her eyes. She walked past the body of 'Magpie' without giving it a second glance, and the Doctor followed her, hoping that she would be all right.

oooooooo

Jack bent and removed the mask of his first opponent. It was a girl, with dark curly hair and clear eyes. There was something old-fashioned about her, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Dropping the mask and standing, Jack cast his eyes around, seeing a taller structure, which would prove an excellent vantage point for the game. Grinning, he began to jog towards it.

oooooooo

Rose lowered her smoking gun, as the figure, who had crept up on them, sank to the ground silently. She had acted without thinking, protection over the Doctor taking over and making her react instantly. He would have been shot without her. Rose, personally, never knew she could move that quickly or with such ruthlessness – she was worrying about who was under that mask – before she hadn't had time to think.

The Doctor gave her a brief hug in thanks and comfort, before bending down to the prone figure and lifting the edge of that mask towards himself, away from Rose. She watched his brow furrow for a moment, and then he sighed and replaced the mask.

"Who is it?"

"I didn't think you would want to know," the Doctor said to her, as they walked away, deeper into the darkness.

"I do."

He hesitated before answering. "It was Sir Robert."

"What, from Torchwood house?" Her voice was low, barely more than a whisper.

"Yes."

Rose cast a backward glance over her shoulder, towards the still figure with Sir Robert's face. Would she have pulled the trigger had she known who it was?

oooooooooo

There was one guarding figure outside the tower-structure. Jack removed them without much worry, but his mistake was pausing, out of curiosity, too see what the victim looked like.

He almost cried out when he saw the identity of the dead figure, a face he recognised from memory, as he dropped the mask and tried to walks away, pretending he hadn't seen Lynda's eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

Lynda with a Y. Sweet little Lynda, from the Gamestation. She had been his eyes and ears during the Dalek invasion, watching on a screen. She had died. He had heard her scream – they all had.

The shock of recognising his own victim had begun to wear off and he calmed down as he climbed a small spiral staircase to come out on a balcony above the room, which gave him perfect view of at least half of the arena.

Logic was telling him it wasn't her, just something with her face, another trick of the Toymaker's to try and make them fail. It still scared the hell out of him, in that split second where he was sure he had killed her. He shook his head to dislodge the thought.

Casting his eyes around the floor below him, he spotted two figures moving together, and a smile crept over his face. No prizes for guessing who they were.

Someone was tailing them, though. A third shadow, moving swiftly up to them – in a matter of moments both the Doctor and Rose would be in their sights, and all it would take was a squeeze of the trigger. There was another approaching form the other direction. They would be trapped, the odds of escape slim. Unless, of course, someone from above helped them.

Jack rested his gun on the edge of the balcony, aiming towards the figure behind his friends. It took a few shots for the figure to fall – and not without both alerting the Doctor and Rose and having to duck a few retaliation shots from his target.

Beneath him, both the Doctor and Rose pressed themselves against the wall when the firing started, and watched the figure who had been sneaking up on them fight an unseen foe before getting hit not once, but twice and falling.

Exchanging a glance, the Doctor moved towards the figure, but a movement out the corner of her eye halted Rose from following. Had she seen a flicker of a shadow from a corner ahead?

Quietly she snuck forward, peeking around the edge of the corner. There was a figure there, the typical lethal gun in their possession, and mask in place. Steeling herself to do the deed, Rose pulled the trigger, dismissing the nagging thought – _who is it?_- and fired.

She almost missed, and her first shot wasn't fatal, thanks to the angle she was on. It took two more shots to cause the target to fall, and she lowered the smoking gun, not wanting to know who it might be.

The Doctor was back beside her by now, looking around the corner at her handiwork.

"Who was it?" Rose asked motioning, with her gun, behind them.

"Uh, Jake. From the parallel earth. I think Jack was responsible, from up there…" He pointed to the tower.

Nodding, Rose moved to her victim, feeling as it as her shot, it should be her to see who it was. She only had to lift the edge to recognise the face beneath, and immediately dropped the mask, moving back, tears in her eyes. She couldn't look at the Doctor, not now. Not since she was responsible for the death of Sarah-Jane.

"Who is it, Rose?"

She shook her head in answer, tight lipped. She didn't know if she could say it. It took a moment before she croaked out the answer. "Sarah-Jane."

She brought a hand up to her face, covering her eyes, blocking out the body before her. Then, there was hand pulling her up and away, as she lent into the Doctor and wished she hadn't looked, that her curiosity had stayed hidden. He was silent and strong beside her, before quietly telling her that it only looked like Sarah-Jane, and it wasn't her fault, and she was beautiful and brave and it was the Toymaker's twisted world.

oooooooo

Jack met them at the base of the tower. Lynda's body had gone, and all three were quiet and thoughtful as jack led the way to the white door, which he had seen from his high position.

There were two before the door. Rose couldn't do it anymore – not after 'Sarah-Jane' and so let the boys deal with it. Rose caught glimpses of both victims, and had to forcibly remind her self that these two only looked like Adam Mitchell and Harriet Jones, and neither were really real.

The door was locked. After a quick tally, the three players and accounted for their eight opponents. So why was the door still locked?

It was Rose who remembered the last piece of the message. _Only one may be left standing_. She reminded the Doctor and Jack of this, who nodded with grim faces. How could they do this? If they died, they lost.

"There's always a way around this." the Doctor said, as they tried to work it out. "I mean, Jack, you're basically okay, right?"

"Yeah, shoot me."

Rose couldn't help but grin at him for that comment. It was harder, though, in the next few minutes when she had to watch him die – again. He offered to shoot himself, an offer which was accepted readily, so with a cheeky wave and flash of a smile, he put a laser hole in his heart.

Rose flinched as his body hit the ground, the skin sickly and pale. She couldn't bring herself to look at it – she thought she might be sick if she did. There was a more pressing problem, though, one which needed dealing with quickly.

"Shoot me," she said quickly, before the Doctor could start talking. "You're more important than me."

He said nothing, but kissed her forehead. "Not true. And I can't, anyway. I literally _can't_, could never bring myself to. And the Toymaker said we both have to survive this."

"Then how can we do it?"

"I think…" he paused, and Rose could see he was choosing his words carefully. "I think you have to shoot me, so I regenerate. That way you're left standing, but I don't die."

Rose shook her head. "No. You need to keep you lives safe, and I'm not having you change on me again. And I can't do that to you. I love you, remember?"

"It's the only way, Rose." His head was bowed as he said it, and he didn't want to meet her eyes.

Rose refused to believe that, and put her head in her hands, thinking. "What about wounds? Would that count?"

The Doctor looked up at this, realisation in his eyes. "Possibly…or maybe we could get away with unconsciousness…that would…yeah, that would do it…"

He grinned, running a hand through his hair. "Hit me!"

"No." Rose had though it would be obvious that she wouldn't.

He bit his lip, frowning slightly at her. "Well, I can't do it alone."

Rose crossed her arms determined to be resolute. "I'm not hitting you. At all. So you have to do it to me."

He rolled his eyes. "You know what I'm going to say. So, we're at a stalemate. Although…there is a way to make people pass out…risky, but it would work…" he grinned up at her, mind going at hundred miles an hour. "Ever seen a bad kung fu film, where the hero smacks a guy on the neck and he goes down? It is possible, really it is, provided you know how to do it. And it just so happen, that I do."

Rose nodded. "I'll bet you can't do it to yourself, though."

"Uh, no, not really…" he looked put out. Rose grinned – the end was sight.

"So you can do it, I can't, and it can't be done on yourself. I think we have reached an answer."

He opened his mouth to reply to her, but instead closed it and nodded in defeat. She came and stood in front of him, ready to leave him as the only one standing. He put his hands on either side of her face first, though, and kissed her gently, passionately, and then wrapped his arms around her.

"I need you to trust me."

She kissed him softly one last time, saying softly, "I've always trusted you."

She turned, putting her back to him. His hands were warm and gentle on her neck, and she felt his fingers dig in at a certain point, and darkness descended.

The Doctor caught her as she fell, letting her slide gently to the ground, lying her beside the still form of Jack, and bringing to mind the Doctor's worst nightmares. He smiled slightly as he looked her, lying still, looking like an angel, and was remained of the last scene of _Romeo and Juliet_. Knowing that she couldn't hear, he whispered, "_Oh my love, my wife, death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty…"_

Behind him, the lock clicked and the door opened.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

OK, so I don't know if it _is_ actually possible to do the passing out thing, but it is here! Anyway, cheers if you're reading and haven't given up on me, I'll update when I next have time.


	11. Round Nine:

Ah. Well. There has been some silence from me, hasn't there? Well, it might be because I got caught up in university and the show, RENT. That ended long ago…I miss it so. Still.

I'm so sorry for my silence!

The other main reason is that the new, third season of DW started weeks ago in the UK…so I have kept myself away from any DW stuff so as not to stumble on any spoilers…I'm in New Zealand, remember? We'll get it in July. Argh. So long to wait…but this DW famine means I've kept away from fan fiction. I was thinking about fanfic a few says ago, and thought I should write more, since I've got a break from assignments at the moment…even though I'm into rehearsals for another show!

Oh, and I'm referring to one of my earlier stories in this again. _Romeo and Juliet._ But I think most of you have read it, so no worries.

Disclaimer: In my mind…

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Rose could feel a grill underneath her head, and a gentle reverberation through the metal. It took her a moment, before her eyes opened, to remember where she was, and what had happened. The Doctor; the last game, everything, Jack…

She opened her eyes, the familiar surroundings suddenly striking fear into her. They hadn't won yet, had they? There were still more games to go…so why was he onboard the TARDIS? And why was the figure at the console so familiar – yet so chilling?

The Doctor turned. "Oh, you're awake! Took you long enough." He pulled her up off the floor and pointed to the opposite side of the console. "Over there, I need you to turn the dials to as high as they'll go."

Rose didn't move, she just continued to stare at the Ninth Doctor, confused and disbelieving. He had regenerated. On the Gamestation. He was younger now, more hyperactive and hers. This Doctor was the past, the other Doctor – the real Doctor was the future. The Ninth Doctor stared back, before crossing his arms and sighing. "What is it now?"

Rose opened her mouth, but she couldn't form the words. She wanted to ask who he was, was this real, was she still dreaming, but she couldn't get anything out. She was scared, confused – as much as part of her was happy to see this Doctor again, she wanted _her_ Doctor.

The Ninth Doctor uncrossed his arms and took her hand. "You don't remember, do you? We were on Axiuos Beta, you were stung by a Axiuan wasp. The poison made you pass out. But I bet you've had some pretty messed up dreams, am I right?"

"I…dreamed?" Rose shook her head slightly. This was beginning to become clear. Maybe…maybe she _had_ been dreaming. "There were millions of Daleks…you regenerated…we went to New Earth…Cassandra, Chip." She dissolved into mutterings about their past adventures as the Doctor before her shook his head patronisingly. "Never happened, Rose."

Rose leant against the railing, trying to sort her thoughts. If it never happened, the Doctor didn't love her…well, maybe he did, but he wasn't the one she had kissed. She wanted her Doctor to come in, show her that everything had happened. What was the last one? A homicidal game, or something. The Astral Toyman. No, that wasn't it. It must be just a remnant from the dreams. She moved to the console the Doctor had indicated before and began to work, mind wandering.

"Where we gonna go?" she asked.

"Wherever we like, Rose-by-any-other-name," the Doctor replied from the other side of the rotor.

Rose's hands stopped above the dials. That was from…she clutched her chest. Without wanting to, she felt under her top – and her fingers touched the almost scar made by the real knife. _Romeo and Juliet._ This was proof it was real. This was just a game. Another Celestial Toymaker game to play with her head. It wasn't real. He wasn't real. Outside those doors she could find her other Doctor, alive and in his current regeneration.

She tuned to find the Doctor blocking her path. "Going somewhere?"

"You're not real," Rose stated, sounding braver than she felt. She showed him the scar beneath her ribs. "This was made by a knife on a thespian planet. I was with your regenerated self. It wasn't a dream; this is still the Toymaker messing with my head!"

The Doctor arched an eyebrow. "How can you be so sure?"

Rose was hoping she wouldn't have to fight him. She didn't know if she could, so she forced herself to keep thinking of the real Doctor, the regenerated one. "The scar wouldn't be here if it didn't happen. Now get out of my way."

"I can't let you, Rose. We're in flight! If you go out there, you'll die! You need to rest, to let yourself calm down." He moved towards her consolingly, but she slipped past him to the doors.

"We're not in flight. The rotor's not moving." She gave a twisted smile and she pulled to door open, to find herself in an old house. She was about to move, when the voice behind her made her turn back form an instant.

"Fine, go. Be intelligent." It came from the Ninth Doctor, but the voice was the Toymaker's. Rose bolted down a corridor, turning back at the corner to see that the TARDIS had vanished, the dusty surroundings unmarked. She wondered, as she leant against the wall shaking, where the Doctor, and Jack, both were. And what was the point of this game?

Her arm computer was gone. No computer, no information. She was on her own – literally and figuratively.

Taking a breath, Rose reasoned that the abandoned mansion – she couldn't help thinking it was slightly clichéd – couldn't be that big. She should be able to find both the boys. It would all be okay.

ooooooo

The Doctor had stepped forward into the darkness carefully, making sure he wasn't too far away from the prone figure of his friends. Through the door is had appeared to be quiet, somewhat safe – but as he had turned to pick up Rose, something, or someone, had flown out of the darkness and given him a painful blow on the head, turning his world to darkness.

He was awake now, finally. He had been lying on the ground where he had fallen – and, as he stood saw that the bodies of Rose and Jack were gone, the arena dark. Something else wasn't right, be he couldn't put his hand on it. As he started to investigate his surroundings – a wide entrance hall, compete with sweeping staircase and chandelier – he realised what it was. The now familiar weight of his computer was gone. He had no way of knowing what this game was.

The hall he was in had seen better days. It had been grand in its time, he guessed, but now it was disused, dusty, spooky. The Doctor paused with a hand on the banister, wondering where he should go. Up, or stay on the lower floor? He could see no footprints or marks in the dust – whatever had taken Rose and Jack had left no clues.

Casting an eye around the hall again, the Doctor noticed a faint sliver of light coming from a side room, partially hidden behind a velvet curtain. Curiosity got the better of him, and he wandered over to take a look.

Drawing back the dusty velvet, his free hand slowly traced the wooden rose carved into the door. Was this, then, a clue to Rose's whereabouts? Was she through here? Was there another door bearing a similar carving that would point to Jack (a martini, perhaps, or a gun?) and lead him to the Captain? But what was within _this _room?

He opened the door slowly, trying to think what could be beyond – knowing the Toymaker, it could be anything, so he had to be prepared for anything.

But he wasn't prepared for what he found.

Standing before him in the doorway, watching him with ethereal, blank eyes, was the Bad Wolf. The Doctor took a step back in surprise. But she was…she was gone. It had cost him a life, but he had pulled the vortex from Rose. Bad Wolf shouldn't exist. Yet here she was, looking more like a goddess than like Rose, blocking his entrance from the room.

"Greetings, Time Lord."

"You…" For once, words seemed so fail him.

"You remember me, then? How lovely." She gave him a twisted smile.

"Why are you here?"

Her eyes seemed to blaze more brightly with the golden light. "To tell you she's gone."

His hearts skipped a beat. She didn't mean…but of course, she did. "Rose?"

Bad Wolf smiled. "Believe what you will."

She faded from sight, revealing the room before him. It was small, but with a high, vaulted ceiling. Torches lit the walls, alongside dark wall hangings. In the centre, laid out on a stone crypt, was Rose. She was pale, unmoving, cold - and clearly dead.

The Doctor paused for a moment, before putting a hand to her cheek. Freezing. He felt her neck and wrist – no pulse. So this was what Bad Wolf had meant by 'gone'. She was gone, dead, deceased.

He stood next to the crypt, mind, for once, completely still. Part of him was telling him that it wasn't real; it was an illusion to bring his guard down. But it was so real…and, illusion or not, it hurt. The idea of Rose, his Rose, dead, was something he didn't want to face – who would? But they had come so close, so many times. When would she fall and not get to her feet? When would she no longer be beside him?

Tears had come, unbidden, to his eyes as he hung his head in thought. One fell, and he caught it in his palm, looking at the droplet through misted eyes. _Pain and loss - they define us as much as happiness or love._ Was that what Sarah-Jane had said? Hadn't he had enough pain and loss for all his lifetimes? This was another weight.

But then again, she put _herself_ in danger so many times – when she purposely disobeyed him, came after him, stayed by him not matter what the danger, no matter what he said. The risk was ever-present, and if she died, he would feel the guilt. No matter whose choices preceded it, or the circumstances. If she died…

He remembered how he had felt when she had been stabbed. The race against time, the promise to her – and himself – he wouldn't loose her. He hadn't…but it had been close. Too close. There was a feeling, deep within the recesses of his mind, that someday, she would be gone. Whether it would be death, injury, or unforeseen circumstances, she couldn't be with him forever.

He placed a hand on the corpse, willing himself to move, to leave this place, to find Rose and revel in the knowledge that she was alive, she was standing with him and she was his. He turned, away from the nightmare illusion in the centre of the room and walked away slowly, in controlled movements.

If, by some chance, they came back here, he wasn't going to let either of the others set foot in that room. No matter how much they asked, or whatever curiosity was displayed. No one was to go into this room.

He rearranged the curtain to hide the door, and set up off the stairs, trying to rid himself of the deep, heavy feeling that was upon him. His only thought now was to find a familiar face within this horror.

ooooooo

Rose was still running, praying, hoping against hope that her pursuer was gone. This place wasn't as straightforward as it had seemed; she was jumping at shadows and hearing eerie noises. She had been sure of the sound of heavy footsteps following her, too heavy to be Jack or the Doctor. And a harsh, scraping sound – like something being dragged.

A few doors back, she had found herself facing a bloodied room, strange symbols on the walls and burnt-out candles on the floor. She hadn't stayed to investigate further – her horror had caused her to stumble out the door. That, and she was sure one of the shadows had moved. Then the footsteps had started.

She bolted into a side room, closing the heavy door quietly behind her, and leant her head against it, listening through the wood. Outside was silent. Rose exhaled slowly, realising she had been holding her breath. She turned to look at the room she had run into.

It appeared to be an old ballroom of a sort – there was a grand piano in the corner, caked in dust. Rose wandered over to it, hand hovering above the keys. To make noise wouldn't be wise, but she was sorely temped to tap a few of the keys. There were a few old paintings, a web-covered chandelier, and a wide floor, which was made slippery by the dust.

A movement caught her attention, and she spun around, seeing that it was only a mirror that had scared her. Laughing softly at herself, she headed over to it. It was massive – maybe twice as tall as her, and a few meters wide. The frame might have been ornate once, but now the gold was tarnished and dirty. And her refection…

…wasn't there. Rose moved her hand experimentally inform of the reflective glass, but nothing happened. She stood for a moment, staring into the mirror, expecting he image to appear. Maybe it was the light, or a trick mirror? She could see something inside it now, a figure, blurred, getting clearer. She turned away as soon as she saw who it was, determined not to be caught by an illusion.

"_You killed me."_

Almost against her will, Rose turned back to the image of the Ninth Doctor and crossed her arms, knowing he was a trick – but she was _not_ going to leave with that thought in her head. "I was ready to die for you. You made that choice. Not me."

"_I had to get you out of trouble. How stupid can you get? Absorbing the Vortex, honestly." _The Ninth Doctor rolled his eyes.

"I wanted to save you," Rose said through gritted teeth. She turned to go, to find the door had gone. The Toymaker wasn't making this easy. She stopped, back to the mirror, considering her options, which there weren't many. There had to be another way out.

"It was all your fault. If you could've stayed out of trouble, maybe my regeneration wouldn't have happened. You never listened to me – we always were in trouble because of you! It was a mistake asking you to come."

Rose's breath caught. They Toymaker really did know how to make it hurt. She tried to block out his voice, not listen, but the words wormed their way into her mind anyway.

"_I should have realised you were going to kill me, I'm surprised it took so long…my death was your fault…I could have done so much, been so many places; but you were such a weight…when I thought you had died, in the bunker, on the Gamestation, there was a part of me which leapt for joy…"_

Rose could feel tears in her eyes, down her face. She had searched with blurred vision for something, anything, to get her out, but had come up with nothing. She was searching a table when the next words from the mirror came across to her.

"_You're so trusting, you know - you really only hear what you want to her – I _don't_ love you. Not now, not eve…"_

Refusal to believe and anger at a homicidal maniac is a dangerous mix. Rose grabbed a candlestick, the closest thing in her reach, and flew at the mirror, determined to shut him up.

He wasn't right.

He was lying.

…wasn't he?

oooooooooooo

After a few piles of bones and some kind of mess he didn't want to see again, a mirror was a nice, normal sight. It looked ornate…reminded the Doctor of the mirror in Reinette's ballroom. The memory made him smile. This frame was a bit more complicated, but the mirror was about the same size. On coming closer, and into better light, he realised that there was a figure in it – and not himself.

The Bad Wolf was standing, watching him, the light of the Time Vortex dancing around her. An amused smile was on her face. _"You're going to kill her…"_

The Doctor, without a word, turned back to leave. He wasn't going to take this again. Once was enough. But the door had mysteriously vanished – the Toymaker was up to his tricks again.

"She's human, so she's mortal. Sooner or later, you will deal with the loss of her. And it's all going to be down to you – you're going to be responsible for her death."

The Doctor was only half listening, searching the room – a library, by the looks of it (lots of bookshelves) – for any other way out, to get himself away from this harpy and her words. Bad Wolf was, to him, an embodiment of the past, and of the Gamestation. She was also dangerous, more a personification of the Time Vortex than a being.

"Remember the feeling of her in your arms, when she was stabbed? All the times you've almost lost her. One time will be too many. You know it to be the truth."

The Doctor turned back to the mirror. He was unable to keep silent with such words. "She's not dead yet."

"_But she will be soon. Or, will she make the choice first? Will she leave you alone, return to a normal life because she can't take this life anymore? Have you ever thought what these adventures must do to her?"_ Bad Wolf tapped her head. _"The things she's seen…"_

"Rose is strong. She makes the decision to travel with me." _And I'm thankful she does…_ "If she wants to leave, it's her choice and I won't influence that."

"_Then, Doctor, what will you do when she dies because of you?"_

"She won't." He said it with a certainty that even surprised himself.

"_One day, one planet, there will come a situation where she will not get out alive. You will be involved. Will she be captive? Will she be trying to save you?"_ Her eyes narrowed. _"Or do you not remember my origins? It will be your fault. You know this, yet refuse to acknowledge it."_

"Leave me be." His hands were running over the bookcase, searching.

"You promised you'd protect her – so when her blood is on your hands, where does that leave the promise?"

The Doctor stayed silent, refusing to give her an answer, even though inside he was seething. He knew this was exactly what the Toymaker wanted, but he couldn't help himself.

"You can't put your burden on others. You're meant to be alone in this universe – you can't have love, or even close friends. You don't deserve it."

At this he did turn, with a mind to shatter this illusion, this horror. He picked up a heavy, dust-covered book and threw it at Bad Wolf.

The crack that resounded from the mirror was amazing. The glass shattered, the image of Bad Wolf lost. With a dull thud, something fell onto the carpet. The Doctor looked at it, puzzled. A Candlestick?

He picked it up, looking through the hole in the mirror to where a familiar figure was holding the dusty book he had thrown. "Rose!"

"Doctor? It's you? Not an illusion?" Rose felt all the anger vanish in an instant.

He was so relieved to see her, unhurt, all right. "Yeah, it's me."

Rose climbed through the broken glass and into the Doctor's arms. She buried her head in his shoulder and wept silently, trying to banish the words that stuck in her mind. It was all a lie, an illusion…this was real.

There was blessed silence around them for a moment.

"A candlestick?"

Rose laughed, despite her tears, as she pulled away a little to look at him. "Yeah. It's a ballroom through there." She flicked her eyes around their current surroundings. "Library. Book. Makes sense."

"Why did you break the mirror?"

"I saw…I saw you. Not _you_, you previous self. It was an illusion, controlled by the Toymaker…he said…" She trailed off, unable to continue. "He said some things meant to break me…" she looked the Doctor straight in the eye. "Do you love me?"

"Of course I do, you know that." He hugged her close to accompany his words. Was that, then, part of the possible torment Rose had been through? "Rose, do you still want to travel with me?"

"You know I do…" she watched him closely, wondering what was going on in his mind.

"No matter what the danger?"

"No matter what."

The illusions' words had been dismissed, the scars they had cut been healed. Emotion was a dangerous weapon, especially in the hands of the Toymaker. Rose was still quiet, her eyes staring off into the corner, seeing something else. "What is it?" the Doctor asked her.

"Just…nothing. Another illusion I saw before. What did you see in the mirror?"

He told her about Bad Wolf, what she had said, and told her about the room he had found in the entrance hall and what was lying within. She stood and listened, a comforting hand on his upper arm, before she, in return, told him about waking up in the illusory TARDIS and what the Ninth Doctor had said to her from the mirror.

It was agreed that nothing was real, it was all a trick, ad the only thing to do now was to find Jack and get the hell out of here. A little hard, as the computers were gone.

After wandering around the dusty and darkened halls for what felt like a matter of hours, the Doctor and Rose stumbled upon Jack's body – literally, he was still lying where he had been placed, in an upstairs bedroom. The self-inflicted laser wound was almost completely healed, but the Doctor and Rose still had to wait for Jack to wake up.

When he did, minutes later, he was groggy and slightly uncoordinated, but with the help of his two companions was soon well enough to walk. Walking out of the bedroom, Jack eagerly enquiring as to what had been happening in the house and the Doctor and Rose evading going into detail, the three noticed the familiar white door at the end of the corridor.

"That wasn't there when we walked up…" whispered Rose.

"I have a feeling we're expected," the Doctor murmured, and as he came closer to the door, it slid silently open.

"Ah, Doctor, Rose, Jack!" came a familiar voice from inside the next room. "So nice you could join me for the last game." The Celestial Toymaker smiled a twisted smile at the three of them.

"Well then. Shall we begin, Doctor?"

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WOOT! Another one down. Oooooooh, and the last game is next, too! Exciting! Review please, if you're still reading, and haven't given up on me because of no updates! Thankies if you have managed to get this far, and come back to me after so much time!


	12. Round Ten: I Am Defeat

Eep.

It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, the completion of this story is down to a few people – Jillie Chan especially – who have been prodding me into finishing. Thanks guys!

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

None of the moved from the doorway. One did not willingly walk towards a homicidal villain who was twisted enough to make you compete in sick games. He was still smiling, making him look disturbing rather than welcoming.

The room was white, plain and simple. The only furniture in it was a table and two chairs – there was no clue as to what was going on here. The only break in the white of the room, aside from those in the room, was the familiar and welcoming sight of the blue box at the heart of all this trouble. The TARDIS stood a little way behind the Toymaker, seemingly serene and untouched.

"Well, Doctor?" the Celestial Toymaker said quietly, his dark eyes burning into the Doctors'. "Will you play?"

"What are we playing?" Jack asked, sounding more confident than he actually felt.

"Oh, I'm sorry Captain," said the Toymaker in mock apology. "It's a two player game, so only the Doctor and myself will take part."

The Doctor shifted slightly next to Rose. "What game?"

"Oh, it's fantastic, a favourite of mine!" The Toymaker rubbed his hands together eagerly at the thought. "Do you know 'I Am Defeat', Doctor?"

Rose and Jack both looked to the Doctor as he narrowed his eyes slightly in thought. "I think I may."

Rose looked at Jack, who pulled a face and shrugged. He didn't know, and neither did she. Flicking a glance back to the Toymaker, who was still smiling his twisted smile while standing by the table, she asked the Doctor softly what the game entailed.

"It's a logic and word association game," the Doctor answered, his eyes not leaving the Toymaker. "One player says something – a thing, or whatever – and the other has to say something which defeats it. Then the first player has to say something which defeats that. Like, if I said fire, you could say water."

"It's up to the players to keep it out of the monotonous realm of opposites. You bring in theories, ideas, philosophies – almost anything, my dear Rose – to try and trap your opponent," said the Toymaker casually. "The game continues until one player cannot defeat the other."

The Doctor nodded. "And you can't repeat things that have already been said."

"Indeed not, Doctor. Sit."

It was a command rather than a request. The Doctor slowly made his way to the table and took the seat opposite his opponents, who folded his fingers together and leaned forward to look the Doctor directly in the eye. "Let's begin."

"Rose, Jack – go to the TARDIS. Stay inside it, you'll be safe there."

"But–"

"Now." His voice held the edge of steel he rarely used. "If his world collapses, then she'll keep you safe."

"A touching sentiment," the Toymaker sighed, bored. "Can we begin now? As this is my game, I will start. _I am the Time War._"

From her position in the TARDIS doorway, Rose saw the Doctor flinch. It was just like the Toymaker to begin with such a low blow. She could see horrible memories reflected in the Doctor's eyes, but he pushed it aside and retuned his focus to the current task. After a pause, he quietly replied.

"_I am peace_."

The Toymaker rolled his eyes. "How predicable. But peace didn't bring back Gallifrey, did it?" He laughed at the Doctor's evident discomfort. "_I am chaos._"

The Doctor was silent for a moment, thinking carefully. "_I am control_."

The Toymaker quirked an eyebrow. "Control? I suppose. But you're making this too easy, Doctor. For what opposes control, and overcomes it easily? _I am freedom_."

Now the Doctor did scowl, but Rose could see private amusement deep in his eyes. What was he thinking?

"_I am the Celestial Toymaker_."

Rose grinned despite herself, exchanging a glace with Jack. It was a clever answer; yet one that the Celestial Toymaker did not seem to appreciate. He was no longer smiling now, but wasn't scowling either. He wore an unreadable, emotionless expression on his face, calmly staring at his opponent.

"Clever, Doctor. But I will not slip up over some clumsy, low blow. You underestimate me. So listen carefully when I say this," he leaned forward and spoke in a hissing whisper Rose and Jack only just heard. "_I am no one_."

The Doctor didn't blink at the veiled threat, but sat silent, thinking. His gaze flicked up over the Toymaker to the two figures in the doorway of the TARDIS, and a shadow of a smile crossed his face.

"_I am a companion_."

He winked swiftly at Rose and returned his gaze to the Toymaker, who was pulling a disgusted face. "Oh, how sentimental. Companionship does defeat isolation, I do not doubt that. But you can only be thinking about yourself, and how _your_ companions have broken your solitude. Touching. But _I am death_."

He leant back, pleased with his own answer. The Doctor looked momentarily troubled, before looking directly at Jack and grinning. "_I am Jack_."

Jack laughed. "Nah, you're never going to be like me."

"Didn't say I was," the Doctor replied with manic happiness, a mood that Rose recognised from when the Doctor had successfully tinkered with something or had been beneath the TARDIS console for a while. "I said I _was_ you. Different, see?"

"Can we return our focus to the current happenings?" The Celestial Toymaker said, barely controlling his anger. "You do not seem to be taking this seriously, Doctor. A shame – for when you die, you will realise your mistake. But for its stupid appearance, your answer does stand." He turned and stared coldly at Jack. "You cannot die, am I correct? I saw your remarkable recoveries as you made your way through my world."

Jack shrugged, grinning casually at the homicidal maniac. "Oh, yeah. Immortal; that's me."

"Impressive. How will your immortality stand up here, though, when the great Doctor looses? I am sure I can find a way to keep you dead." There was something disturbing in his eyes, and Rose shuddered as he turned away.

"Now, back to business." He took another look at Jack, looking him up and down and scrutinising him closely. "_I am a supermodel_."

"Hey!" Jack yelled indignantly. "I resent that."

"You have no input in this game, therefore your resentment is not important nor noticed," the Toymaker said in a bored tone of voice; ignoring him.

"He does have a point, Jack," said the Doctor. "But so do I. _I am vanity_."

"Ah, vanity. A supermodel's failing…provided one is using generalisations, of course. Very well. _I am failure_."

"Failure?" The Doctor was caught off-guard. "Well, yeah, I suppose. I suppose failure can get rid of vanity…but failure is easy to defeat. _I am determination_."

"Oh, are you? _I am despair_, then."

It felt strange to Rose, standing in the TARDIS doorway and watching this strange game going on before her, unable to help or take part. This game seemed to be more beneath the surface – a player had to be careful with what they said, for a wrong answer could create and easy opening for their opponent to trap them and win. It seemed easy on the surface – but in truth, this game was tricky and hard. It was very much a game of intellect.

Privately, Rose was glad it wasn't her playing.

She came out of her thoughts and focussed again on the table, where the Doctor was considering his next answer.

"_I am hope_."

Rose nodded to herself. A good answer, one which even she was sure the Toymaker would struggle to oppose. But he was shrugging, uncaring.

"_I am loss_."

Loss overcoming hope? True, in some cases. Loss _could_ break hope. So what was the Doctor going to respond?

He was silent, looking calmly at his opponent. "_I am time_."

The Toymaker laughed, the sound echoing in the small room. "Time? Time! How appropriate. But _I am the Time Lords_."

The Doctor flinched like he'd been slapped. Silently, his gaze moved past the Toymaker to Rose. He stood.

The Toymaker laughed. "You have defeated yourself, Doctor! You have no answer; I can see it in your face. So I win, and you are mine – all three of you, and your machine."

The Doctor moved around to the TARDIS and put his arms around Rose. She could feel him sigh as he held her close, like he'd never let go. "Go inside."

"What?"

"Go inside, both of you." He drew out of her embrace. "Do it."

As he turned back to the Toymaker, Rose and Jack moved further back inside the TARDIS. The Toymaker rolled his eyes at them. "Your ship is mine, by the rules of my world. Even if you hide inside it, you will not stay safe for long."

But the Doctor stepped back so he was in the doorway, facing the Toymaker. His face was lined with grief, and his eyes were hard. Something in them made the smile fade from the Toymaker's face. Something was wrong…then the Doctor spoke, quietly, calmly.

"_I am the Doctor_."

Quickly, he took one more step back and closed the door. An angered shriek sounded through he door, followed by a sound like something ripping, then…silence.

"Doctor?"

He looked up from where he had been leaning against the door. "I did defeat them," he said in the same quiet tone he had answered in. "Technically."

Rose frowned and reached out to him, pulling him towards the familiar light of the console. Jack was leaning against one of the railings. "You ok, Doc?"

"Yeah, yeah. Fine. No one's defeated me yet; he didn't have any answer."

"Yeah, I know," said Rose, resting a hand on his shoulder comfortingly and kissing his cheek lightly. "I know."

Still preoccupied, the Doctor reached out and sent the TARDIS back into the vortex.

He was the defeater of the Time Lords, his own people. But he was also the Oncoming Storm, and the defeater of the Celestial Toymaker. Again.

He was also a protector and a helper of anyone in need.

But overall, he was his final answer.

He was the Doctor.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

So, uh, yeah – finally done! Sorry if the last game wasn't as action-packed as some were hoping – I like subtlety and deep stuff, and thought it worked for this. It's also not a quick end solution or anything: this game's been in the works as the last one from the beginning; the progression of it written in the back of a diary of mine.

Cheers to everyone who's reviewed over the course of this story, and all the support it's been given – it was humbling how widely this story was accepted and liked.


End file.
